NCAA Football pittsburgh Panthers

After further review: Cincinnati and Pittsburgh remain on a collision course to determine the Big East championship and BCS bowl berth.

The Bearcats and Panthers experienced some anxious moments down the stretch, but both survived to move a step closer to delivering the Big East its first matchup of Top-10 ranked teams since 2006.

Cincinnati held off West Virginia, 24-21, and Pittsburgh outlasted Notre Dame 27-22 over the weekend. Did we mention both UC and Pitt were playing at home and benefited from two game-changing replay reversals?

And who says the SEC has the monopoly on all the controversial replay calls?

The No. 5 ranked Bearcats (10-0, 6-0 Big East) and No. 8 Panthers (9-1, 5-0) get a chance to catch their breath this weekend. West Virginia also is off this weekend, giving the Mountaineers time to reflect on their first two-game Big East losing streak since 2004 and watch Rich Rod against Ohio State.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Jonathan Baldwin made two exceptional catches that allowed No. 8 Pittsburgh to open up an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter before Notre Dame rallied behind two touchdowns by star Golden Tate, and the Panthers held on for a 27-22 victory Saturday night that may raise more cries for Fighting Irish coach Charlie Weis' ouster.

Notre Dame (6-4) trailed 27-9 with 12:44 remaining after Dion Lewis' 50-yard touchdown run, then came back before Jimmy Clausen fumbled with just over two minutes remaining.

The Irish followed up a did-it-really-happen 23-21 loss to Navy with their eighth consecutive loss to a Top 10 team - the longest streak in school history. Weis is 1-10 against ranked teams since 2006, and has the same record (35-25) as former coach Bob Davie and the same winning percentage (.583) as former coach Tyrone Willingham, both of whom were fired.

PITTSBURGH -- Given our location this evening, I feel a responsibility to work the term "confluence" into the text. For instance, it is an interesting confluence of events that brings Charlie Weis back to Pittsburgh for the first time since his 2005 debut as he is about to coach the most important game of his career. The Fighting Irish have tackled November with all the prowess that they have tackled anything of late, which is to say not well.

The Irish are 3-7 in their last ten November contests after having won their first seven under Weis. We'll see this evening which way the proverbial arrow is pointing in terms of Notre Dame's November nitty gritty.

Key stat heading into the game? Pittsburgh leads the nation in sacks. That's bad news for a team with an immobile quarterback and a back-up who, though experienced, has yet to attempt a pass in a game this season (Evan Sharpley). I cannot, in the words of Matt Millen, "underemphasize enough" how important it is that Clausen, who is likely more dinged up than either he or Weis is letting on, remain in the game.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Pennsylvania is a second home of sorts for the Irish, and not because it happens to be the birthplace of Irish legend Joe Montana.

Nor is it because Pittsburgh's the home of Beano Cook, who once predicted those two Heismans for Berwick, Pa., native Ron Powlus (currently the team's quarterbacks coach).

"We have more subscribers in the state of Pennsylvania than any other state," says inveterate Blue and Gold Illustrated editor Lou Somogyi.

The Panthers, despite their 8-1 record and No. 8 AP ranking, have been averaging crowds in the mid-40,000 level this season at Heinz Field. Saturday night's game, however, despite being available free on television (ABC), is a sellout (65,000-plus) and the Panthers are selling an additional 1,000 standing-room-only ducats. The attendance could possibly break the modern-record for a sporting event in Pittsburgh (66,731 for a 2002 "Backyard Brawl" contest between West Virginia and Pitt).

FanHouse writer John Walters is living in South Bend, Ind., during one of the most pivotal seasons in Notre Dame history. Check back daily for his dispatches on the Irish.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame co-defensive coordinator Corwin Brown went Dennis Miller ("I don't mean to get off on a rant, but...") on Wednesday evening, and my question is simply this: Why don't we see this out of the Fighting Irish more often?

If you have yet to see the video, Brown interrupted the first question he was asked during the typically informal gathering and instead called out Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo for nearly two minutes. Brown was most upset by two things:

FanHouse Big East writer Brett McMurphy empties his reporter's pad every week with the latest news from the league in the Big East Notebook.

While the majority of college football programs are utilizing the spread offense, Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt proudly admits his club's offensive philosophy has gone the way of the dinosaur.

So far, so good for Tyrannosaurus Dave and his Panthers. Forget extinction, the Panthers are thriving in their prehistoric offense.

The Panthers are 8-1, lead the Big East in rushing (187 yards per game) and second in the Big East and 16th nationally in scoring offense (34.56 points per game).

"I think there are a lot of different ways to win," Wannstedt said. "Right now everybody's in the spread offense. We're probably one of the dinosaurs left that are lining up with a fullback and a tailback and trying to pound people and play-action pass.

"But that's what I believe in. And the Super Bowls and national championships I've been associated with, that's what we did. You have to go with what you know and what you believe."

Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and West Virginia won as expected last week, but it wasn't quite as easy as the experts predicted.

All three clubs were heavy favorites between 17 and 21 points, yet only Pittsburgh won easily. PItt was the only one of the trio that didn't almost lose. The Panthers disposed of depleted Syracuse 37-10, but Cincinnati and West Virginia had a lot more difficulty.

The Bearcats outlasted a resilient UConn club 47-45, while the Mountaineers held off Louisville 17-9.

Last week's results shows that the league remains divided into three tiers: the best (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh), the worst (Louisville, Syracuse) and everyone else (South Florida, West Virginia, UConn and Rutgers).

While the top and the bottom of the league is pretty well set, it should be interesting to see how the middle four teams shake out in the next few weeks. It will start Thursday when USF visits Rutgers.

Unfortunately, we have to wait another four weeks for the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh contest.

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.

Gentlemen, start your hype engines.

We're just past the halfway mark of the college football season and, forget the battle for who will play for the BCS title, the most intriguing campaign is for the Heisman Trophy.

The latest flavor of the month is Alabama running back Mark Ingram, who has been touted by several TV talking heads and is the top candidate at HeismanPundit.com.

That's understandable, but why has there been hardly no Heisman mention for West Virginia's Noel Devine and Pittsburgh's Dion Lewis, who are the nation's third and fourth leading rushers?

"Dion's been very consistent," Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt said. "You expect a freshman running back like him to perform that way maybe like three or four games a year, not eight games in a row."

Ingram obviously deserves consideration for the award, but is it not so much for what he's done, but who he plays for? After all, he has the No. 1 requirement to win the Heisman – he plays on a team that's ranked in the top five