NCAA Football South Florida

TAMPA, Fla. -- The demand for a college football playoff could break up the BCS after the 2013 season, but instead of adding a playoff, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) would likely just revert back to the old bowl system, Big East commissioner John Marinatto told FanHouse.

"It [the BCS] is such an entity where there's so many diverse things that come together that make it work," Marinatto said. "I don't know if all that will continue to go on the way it is. If they're pressured to create a playoff, they would simply go back to what the system used to be like and have it as an at-large, free-for-all where people can go [to whichever bowl] they want.

And then there were two.

Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are now the lone undefeated teams in Big East play after last weekend's action.

The No. 4 ranked Bearcats and No. 14 Panthers continue on a collision course for the de facto Big East championship game on Dec. 5 in Pittsburgh. By the way, whatever Nick Carparelli, the Big East's senior associate commissioner for football, is making, he deserves a raise.

Carparelli is in charge of the league's schedule and his philosophy is having the league's top games played later in the year. That's easier said than done, but the Big East could have a pair of Top 10 teams playing for the league title if the Bearcats and Panthers don't stumble.

Stumble is exactly what West Virginia did -- again -- at South Florida. Playing in Tampa, Fla., on a Friday night for the second time in three years, the Mountaineers' league title hopes took a big hit with the 30-19 loss to the Bulls, who had lost their previous two games to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh by a combined margin of 75-31.

It's only a matter of time until someone decides to make a Groundhog Day sequel. If so, have the University of South Florida Bulls got the perfect storyline.

An undefeated start, a climb into the national rankings and then a mid-season meltdown that sends the Bulls spiraling and finishing the season unranked in 2007. And 2008. And again in 2009?

Wonder how well Bill Murray can pull off Jim Leavitt's sideline antics?

The Bulls started 5-0 -- again -- this season including what Leavitt called the biggest win in program history at Florida State Sept. 26.

USF is the only school in the nation to start each of the past three seasons 5-0 - which, of course, makes USF the only school in the nation to finish the past two seasons unranked after starting 5-0 and climbing into the Top 10.

The million dollar question -- or the $1.6 million dollar question since that's what Leavitt will make this year -- is what happens to USF each year?

Just three weeks ago, we called Pittsburgh the Pitts-ophrenic Panthers after their up-and-down performances earlier this season against Buffalo, N.C. State, Louisville and UConn.

Uh, is it too late to take that all back?

As impressive as Cincinnati has been all season, Pittsburgh might be playing the best overall of any Big East team. The offense is balanced and the defense gets more dominating each week. Saturday, the Panthers (7-1, 4-0 Big East) scorched South Florida 41-14.

Since allowing 505 yards at N.C. State, the Panthers have improved their defensive numbers in each of the past four games. Pitt allowed 305 yards to Louisville on Oct. 2, 303 to UConn on Oct. 10, 286 to Rutgers on Oct. 16 and 212 to USF on Saturday.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Just a few days ago, quarterback Zach Collaros was running Cincinnati's scout team offense. Late Thursday night inside a near empty Raymond James Stadium, Collaros was the recipient of bear hug from offensive tackle Samuel Griffin, who then lifted him off the ground.

"He was just amazing," Griffin said.

With senior starter and darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate Tony Pike knocked out early in the second half with an arm injury, Collaros came in to lead the No. 8 Bearcats to a 34-17 victory at No. 21 South Florida.

Pike left late in the first half with a sprained left wrist -- on the same arm he broke last season -- but returned in the second half. Pike lasted only eight plays in the third quarter before leaving for good, after, according to Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, the plate in his arm from last year's injury moved

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TAMPA, Fla. -- Mike Ford hears dead people.

Since his father, Robert Ford, died on July 6, 2007, Mike Ford said he talks with his dad. Every single day.

"He's here with me, and I hear voices, him telling me to do something," Ford told FanHouse. "I literally hear it. Like me and you talking right now. It's crazy. At first, it was kind of scary. And it's not even when I ask for help.

"I just hear a voice. He's telling me to do this or do that."

Dealing with his father's death is just another obstacle for the University of South Florida running back. As a child, he nearly drowned in the Gulf of Mexico. In high school, he struggled academically, which cost him a scholarship to Alabama. Two years later, he ended up at USF and admits he was overweight his first two seasons with the Bulls. This season, the junior was suspended for USF's first two games for what school sources said was a second failed drug test.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Defensive coordinator Joe Tresey said he never saw it coming.

A couple of months after Cincinnati won the Big East title and played in the Orange Bowl and just days after National Signing Day in February, Tresey was fired by Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly. Tresey had spent the past three seasons as Kelly's defensive coordinator -- one year at Central Michigan and the past two seasons at Cincinnati.

"Yes I was surprised," Tresey told FanHouse. "I think it was over a 3-to-4 day period [that he talked with Kelly]. We had a discussion about going to the 3-4 [defense]."

Sources told FanHouse that Kelly's decision was based on Tresey interviewing for the Miami defensive coordinator position after last season. Tresey basically had the job locked up, but insisted on coaching UM's defensive backs. Miami coach Randy Shannon wanted Tresey assisting with another position and that ended up being a deal breaker, sources said.

On Monday, Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe was asked who would be the Cardinals' starting quarterback Saturday against Southern Miss.

"I don't want Southern Miss to know who the quarterback is," Kragthorpe said. "You guys will find out when they walk out on game day."

Forget the Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on first?", "Who's starting at quarterback?" has become the all-too-common theme in the first month of the Big East.

Last year, the league was stockpiled with clear-cut starting quarterbacks at West Virginia (Pat White), South Florida (Matt Grothe), Rutgers (Mike Teel), Pittsburgh (Bill Stull), Louisville (Hunter Cantwell) and Syracuse (Cameron Dantley). At Cincinnati and UConn, Tony Pike and Tyler Lorenzen ended up getting the majority of the starts, but the Bearcats and Huskies each used three different starting quarterbacks last season.

The past week was fairly routine and predictable for the Big East: Cincinnati, South Florida, West Virginia and Pittsburgh all won fairly easy as they were expected against lesser competition.

The season isn't even to the halfway mark -- heck not every team has even started Big East play yet -- but that quartet has emerged as the Big East's Fab Four.

Entering the season, the consensus of all the preseason magazines and .com's was that any one of five teams would win the league. Those four plus Rutgers were considered good enough to win the league in a race that would be too close to call.

The Sunshine State's college football teams awoke Sunday in a state of flux.

Florida's Tim Tebow was injured. Miami was bruised. Florida State was exposed. South Florida was, well, giddy. It was just as nuts nationally, too, where four top-10 teams lost this weekend. Six times already this season a team ranked in the top 10 has lost to an unranked team. What comes next? Every game could be a potential adventure as September rolls into October.

"As a whole team we have to learn how to finish the game," UM head coach Randy Shannon said Sunday after reviewing the Hurricanes' 31-7 loss at Virginia Tech 24 hours earlier. "The first two weeks I thought they [players] did a nice job with maturity, doing their responsibility, what they needed to get done.

"Now they took a step back."