Technically Notre Dame is a bowl partner with the Big East Conference and the Fighting Irish is a full-member of the Big East, except for football.Yet, even with the Irish's ties to the Big East, when they play host to UConn Saturday there won't be one person affiliated with the league that will be rooting for the Irish -- well, except for, the entire city of Cincinnati.
Bearcats Nation will be pulling for Notre Dame to win so that ND coach Charlie Weis will not become former ND coach Charlie Weis. And, in turn, current Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly won't become future Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.
Other than Cincinnati, the rest of the league will be pulling for the Huskies. The reason is if Notre Dame (6-4) wins at least seven games, by either defeating UConn Saturday or Stanford next week, the Irish is a virtual lock to take the Big East's spot in the Gator Bowl. That would shuffle the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh loser down to the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
So to improve the overall Big East bowl situation, the majority of the league will be rooting for the Huskies. In fact, the entire nation is probably pulling for the Huskies, who have suffered three excruciatingly close losses since the death of Jasper Howard.
In consecutive weeks, UConn lost to West Virginia 28-24, Rutgers 28-24 and Cincinnati 47-45 -- all games decided in the final minutes. The Huskies (4-5), who were off last week, are still in bowl contention, but must win at least two of their final three games vs. Notre Dame, Syracuse and USF.
The Huskies also hope to stretch the Big East's winning streak against Notre Dame to four consecutive wins.
While UConn has suffered three consecutive heartbreaking losses, the Irish also are familiar with close calls. Eight of Notre Dame's last nine games have been decided by seven points or less. This one will be another tight battle -- but this time the 6-point underdog Huskies pull off the upset sending mixed emotions throughout the league.
There's only two other games involving Big East teams this week.
Louisville at USF: On Thursday, Louisville restricted smoking to only designated outside areas on campus. Next year, the school will completely ban smoking on campus. This may appear insignificant news, but it is important for any individuals with a nicotine addiction who will be applying for the head coaching position. Steve Kragthorpe, of course, remains the Cards' coach as the 'Ville is coming off last week's 10-9 victory against Syracuse. It was the worst offensive game/best defensive game in Big East play in at least the past five years. USF is coming off only its second shutout loss in school history -- a 31-0 blanking at Rutgers. The Bulls have never lost to Louisville in Tampa and no matter how bad they looked against Rutgers, they're not going to start now. USF covers the 11½.
Rutgers at Syracuse: Will the last Syracuse player standing turn off the lights in the Carrier Dome? LB Derrell Smith, the Orange's leading tackler, suffered a knee injury at Louisville and the school announced he won't play in SU's final two games. Earlier this week, the Orange also announced that KR Mike Jones and LS/TE Dalton Jones suffered season-ending injuries as well at Louisville. In its last two losses against Pitt and Louisville, Syracuse has scored only 19 points. Ironically, 19 also is probably the number of remaining healthy Syracuse players. Meanwhile, Rutgers is on another patented late-season run under Coach Greg Schiano. There's no reason to think it won't continue Saturday. Rutgers covers the 9.
Last Week: 4-0 (straight up); 1-3 (against the spread)
Season: 48-9 (84.2 percent) (straight up); 21-25-1 (45.7 percent) (against the spread)
Contact FanHouse reporter Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com.
