Well That Was Quick

While I'm sure there will be a couple of days/weeks before we hear the final verdict on the whole WVU/RichRod scandal one little quip in the court document seals the deal.

The Charleston Daily has the court documents here.

It takes a few pages down on the first part to find the end of the trial, but I'll highlight it for you

RichRod is asked to read his 2002 contract.

The Integration Clause
Page 13
Roman Numeral 10.

The Entire Agreement

It is mutually understood that this agreement contains all the terms and conditions to which the parties have agreed and there are no other understandings or representations, either oral or written, unless referenced in the preceding paragraphs. Regarding the subject matter this agreement shall be deemed to exist as a bond to the parties hereto. Any modification, amendment or addendum to this agreement shall be effective only if made in writing and signed by both parties

Gun. Meet Foot.

Fight on Ben

Mauk was denied his appeal for a 6th year of eligibility.

But yet again fighting against the man.... Mauk will seek to go to the next level up to appeal.

Stick it to the man, Ben. Stick it to 'em

Charlie, It's Not That We Hate You Because You're That Good,

it's that your school pulls crap like this on a regular basis.

Notre Dame continues to try and schedule teams without giving them the benefit of home games.

Instead of bending over and taking it, Rutgers politely told the Irish where they could stick their home and not-home series.

Personally, I'm glad. Teams need to have some pride and demand that the big boys come to their house.

It's ridiculous and insulting that ND would make that offer to a team that is in the same conference for every other sport. Schiano has changed things at Rutgers and I'm glad that this has been a part of it.

RichRod Comes to Sweet Justice

It's the beginning of the end for Richard Rodriguez.

Well at least his excess money he took from WVU.

RichRod is finally headed to court today. (Thanks Wizard of odds)

Rodriguez is hoping that the broken oral promises made to him by WVU will hold up enough in the court of law to have justified his departure. Since there's no written evidence... and RichRod pretty much violated his contract to a "T," we're not feeling too good for that four mil.

Personally if I'm a coach, that baby being edited out of there is a non-negotiable fact. I'll scratch it out and initial it right before I sign on the dotted line. There's no humanly possible way I sign a document that says I pay you money for me quitting. A university probably wouldn't allow that.

Probably why I'm not a coach though.

Big East Schedule Sexiness

The picks for top games each week in the Big East:

Thanks CFN

Week 1

Kentucky at Louisville - Instate rivalry to start off the season. Kentucky pulled off the upset last year

Fresno State at Rutgers - A last minute add for Rutgers a la KState. Fresno is a tough team. Just ask USC, A&M, Kansas State, or Georgia Tech. None of them want anything to do with Pat Hill again for a long time.

Week 2

South Florida at UCF - UCF was good, and got better as the season went on. USF took care of business last year but expect the Knights to put up a fight

Cincinnati at Oklahoma - Good for the Bearcats taking on a strong OOC game. Let's hope it doesn't turn out as bad as most times that teams take on OU

West Virginia at East Carolina - East Carolina showed to have some life last year. Expect lots of offensive fireworks.

Week 3

North Carolina at Rutgers - Covered in the ACC one, but should be a good match up. UNC has to improve.

Virginia at Connecticut - This was a good game last year from teams that had better seasons than expected. Both should still be competitive.

Kansas at USF - Kansas stops the cupcakes and takes on some serious competition. Both teams had breakout years last year and this will be a good indicator of whether or not it was a fluke.

Penn State at Syracuse - Syracuse needs to get decent and get decent now. They probably won't beat JoePa, but a competitive game here can do wonders for the year.

Week 4

Kansas State at Louisville - Kansas State can be a fluky team. If Louisville's defense is still fluky here, we'll know it.

West Virginia at Colorado - Could b very telling game for both teams. Colorado has had some trouble in Dan Hawkins first two years, but success as well.

Iowa at Pitt - These are two teams that should be better than they are year in and year out. Each have coaches that have underachieved greatly

Baylor at Connecticut - UConn has lifted themselves out of the cellar. Can Baylor?

Week 5

UConn at Louisville - Good game last year, should be better teams this year.

Marshall at West Virginia - Marshall hasn't been relevant in this game in a while. Would be nice for a real rivalry to form here

Rutgers vs. TBA - Should be epic.

Week 6

Rutgers at West Virginia - Rutgers will have to start making a name for themselves without Rice. Here's the game to do it.

Week 7

Syracuse at West Virginia - Only because I think it will be a beating of magnitudenal proportions. Maybe not. Maybe I'm full of it and Syracuse decides to be good. I hope so.

Rutgers at Cincinnati- Good game last year that Cinci won. 2 TD's in 19 seconds as well.

Week 8

Middle Tennessee at Louisville - This is the game last year where we figured out that Louisville had problems

Week 9

Auburn at West Virginia - Nice Thursday night game. Probably the best one ESPN is offering this year. Can be a very uplifting or damaging game to the winner or loser in the rankings, while not affecting conference standing.

South Florida at Louisville - If we assume that Louisville is back we should expect a heck of a game here

Week 10

USF at Cinci - Both teams have improved dramatically the last few years and become real contenders.

Louisville at Syracuse - For some strange and ungodly reason I picked this upset last year. Don't know why.

Pitt at Notre Dame - Just here to tell ND to suck it. The game could be good. Both teams have to be better than the last year versions of themselves.

Week 11

Cinci at WVU - Here is a big game for Cinci. They've been teetering with being above average for some time now. Knocking out powerhouse WVU would be a big step into the big time.

Louisville at Pitt - Both Wannstedt and Kragthorpe can't afford mediocre seasons again.

Syracuse at Rutgers - Always funny that NYers claim Rutgers as their own over Syracuse. Winning will do that.

Week 12

Cincinnati at Louisville - The old C-USA teams meet with Cini probably being the favored team this year after the Ville's collapse last season

Rutgers at USF - Both teams bring good some defenses with a little bit of offensive firepower to the match. Should be good.

Week 13

Pitt at Cincinnati - We keep expecting bigger things from both of these programs. At this point in the season we'll see if it was merited.

Connecticut at South Florida - Another game against teams that have become conference powers just recently.

WVU at Louisville - This game has been very heated for about three years now. The winner of this game has won the conference in those three years as well.

Week 14

WVU at Pitt - Backyard Brawl that could matter. For some reason WVU couldn't get it going here last year and it cost them their shot at the MNC

Week 15

Cincinnati at Hawaii - Neither team has made a huge name for themselves on defense lately, should be a pretty exciting game if Hawaii rebounds from losing their QB, coach and cajones in the Sugar Bowl.

USF at WVU - This has been a bad deal for WVU the last few years. USF continues to improve and if WVU wants to continue to the be dominant team in the Eig

Conference Champion:

WVU. I don't think the offensive philosophy will change that much with RichRod's departure. Maybe somebody will surprise us and step it up... but who? Rutgers, Louisville, UConn, Pitt, USF, and Cinci all seem like they can. Should be the most interesting conference race this year.

UConn Edsall talks adding additional team.

Apparently Coach Edsall hasn't read our previous commentary. It's the one telling Notre Dame to suck it, Randy.

In an ESPN article he's claiming that the league needs to add a team. To which, I agree. Eight teams? That's pretty weak all in all. A good portion of those teams were in Conference USA five years ago. (USF, Louiville, and Cinci)

It is unfortunate that the ACC had their raid a few years ago which ended up with Miami, VaTech and Boston College heading to the ailing conference. It hasn't helped too much as the ACC still is struggling to find it's niche. While it improved the ACC, it hurt the Big East deeply.

The Big East has had some moments of competitiveness. West Virginia was one decent offensive series away from the big show in the Big Easy last year. Louisville put together a nice season two years ago with a BCS win. WVU also had a 1 loss season with a BCS win the season before that. So it's not like there's NO good teams. There's just not enough. Or I guess you could say, just not enough parity.

Consider this, 6 of 8 teams were bowl eligible this last year. Wow. If anything the Big East needs to nab some more C-USA or MAC teams just to install their perverbial Bayfordukeandy ™ (I'm trademarking that one)

I'm personally a big fan of telling the Independents to shut up or join up. Being a member of a conference is just good in a lot of ways. Unless your a moneywhore of a school. But we're not naming any names. I think as the schools push more and more for some sort of elimination system to declare the champion of the college football season we'll see how the independents respond.