Big East Set for Major Proving Ground

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, whose club visits Auburn this weekend, said he's never been to historic Jordan-Hare Stadium.

UConn will be making its first visit to Waco, Texas, in what will be longest road trip in school history when the Huskies play Baylor.

And then there's the Cincinnati Bearcats, who head to the Left Coast to visit Oregon State. Earlier this week, Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly joked that a couple of his players "would have a hard time finding Oregon on the map."

Big East teams might be unfamiliar with where they're headed this week, but they should have a better idea where they're located on the national landscape after this weekend's games.

Of the Big East's eight non-conference games, five are against BCS conference schools. The Big East is playing every BCS league Saturday, except for the ACC.

There are five games -- Louisville also visits Kentucky and Syracuse hosts Northwestern -- and five major opportunities for the Big East.

"Every time you play outside the league is important," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "Can one game make or break you? No. But every time you go outside the conference it's important."

Perception is reality and so far the perception is that the Big East isn't so big -- or bad.

"It seems like we never do enough," Stewart said.

Since the league added Cincinnati, Louisville and USF in 2005, the Big East is 30-35 against the other BCS leagues during the regular season, including a 0-3 start this season. In that same time span, the Big East is 7-7 in bowl games against BCS teams, although the Big East champions are 3-1 in its BCS bowls.

Since 2005, the league's most successful team against BCS competition in the regular season has been Louisville, which is 8-2. In fact, Louisville, West Virginia and USF are a combined 18-6 against BCS opponents since 2005 -- accounting for 60 percent of the league's BCS regular season victories.

Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt said the league's performance in non-conference games this week can help the Big East's reputation.

"They are (important), no question about that," Wannstedt said. "So is it there? Yes. Is it real? Yes. Is it a focal point? I would say no."

Making this week even tougher for the Big East is that four of the five teams are playing on the road and four of the five are underdogs. Only Cincinnati, which is listed even at Oregon State, isn't an underdog, but they're headed to Corvallis, where the Beavers have won 26 consecutive non-conference home games.

After this weekend, the Big East has more BCS tests in the next two weeks, including Pittsburgh at N.C. State, Rutgers at Maryland, USF at Florida State and Colorado at West Virginia.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto told the Birmingham News that these next few weeks are important.

"Every single game is important in some way or some form," Marinatto said. "You try not to put too much weight in any specific game, but obviously the way we perform out of conference is critical and we take it seriously."

The question is: how seriously will the nation take the Big East after the next couple of weeks?