FanHouse Greg Schiano

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.

Money, it's been said, can't buy you happiness. It also can't guarantee a Top 25 football team either.

There are at least 31 head coaches in the BCS ranks that will earn more than $1.8 million this season, according to a salary study conducted by USA Today.

Of the nation's 31 highest-paid head college football coaches in America, only nine are currently coaching teams in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll. That leaves 22 of the nation's 31 highest-paid coaches outside the AP Top 25.

Of those 22 coaches, five have a losing record this season -- Florida State's Bobby Bowden (4-5), Wake Forest's Jim Grobe (4-6), Virginia's Al Groh (3-6), Washington's Steve Sarkisan (3-6) and Maryland's Ralph Friedgen (2-7) -- and another is at .500 -- Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (5-5).

Four of the 22 coaches are in the cellar in their respective conferences -- Missouri's Gary Pinkel and Kansas' Mark Mangino (each tied for last in the Big 12 North), Michigan's Rich Rodriguez (tied for last in the Big 10) and Friedgen (tied for last in the ACC Atlantic).

When the Associated Press preseason poll was released, the Big East was blanked. The Big East had as many teams in the preseason Top 25 poll as the Sun Belt: zero, zip, nada.

Since the league began in 1991, it was only the third weekly poll that the Big East did not have a team in the AP rankings and, on cue, prompted the annual "does the Big East deserve an automatic BCS bowl bid argument?" from out West.

Seven weeks later, however, the Big East is back in the rankings in a big way. The Big East has three teams ranked among the nation's top 22 schools -- no conference has more in the top 22 -- and a legitimate national title contender in Cincinnati.

Last week Greg Schiano hit the century mark. Schiano coached his 100th game at Rutgers, a closer-than-expected win against Florida International.

The 100th game milestone was recognized by the Newark Star-Ledger, which proclaimed the Scarlet Knights' program is "stuck in neutral."

I'm guessing the newspaper isn't comparing Rutgers to Switzerland. It's not the most flattering endorsement, but at least the Scarlet Knights aren't locked in reverse like their opponent this week, the Maryland Terps.

Wasn't it just the other day that Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen was hailed as an offensive genius? OK, maybe it was a couple of years ago then. What? It's been six years?

My, how time flies when you're 18-22 the past five years in the ACC.

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.

FanHouse correspondent Steve Franklin covers East Carolina football for the Washington Daily News, so from time to time, Steve will deliver in-depth gridiron reports from the South. In his first installment, Steve talks to talented UConn running back Donald Brown, who was the lone bright spot in the Huskies' road loss to UNC.

Folks around Storrs, Connecticut began to take notice of Donald Brown when he first stepped onto the football field donning the blue and white of the University of Connecticut in August of 2006.

In his collegiate debut, as a redshirt freshman, the Huskies' running back toted the ball 18 times for 118 yards and quickly became a fan favorite of UConn followers.

Two years later, the rest of the college football world is finally figuring out what those from the Nutmeg State have been saying for the past year and a half: Donald Brown is one of the best college football players in the country.

"Wow, that kid is good," said University of North Carolina defensive tackle Marvin Austin after Brown rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown in the Tar Heels' 38-12 victory on Oct. 4. "He's a great back. Definitely one of the best we've seen. He runs hard and he's quick. He's the total package."

Rutgers enters the post Ray Rice era in 2008. With a sold but somewhat disappointing 2007 in the rear view mirror the Scarlet Knights need to redefine themselves and find someone to fill the void left by Rice.

Why They'll Win

What they lack in running back star power, they make up for at the quarterback and receiver positions. Last year wasn't all about Ray Rice. In 2007, Rutgers became the first 1-A school to have a 3,000 yard passer, 2,000 rusher, and two 1,000 receivers. Despite a nagging thumb injury, Mike Teel managed to pass for over 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns. Big numbers that were overshadowed by the year Rice had. On the outside, Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood both had over 60 receptions and combined to catch 15 touchdowns.

The defense lost Eric Foster, but they return eight starters that should be able to reproduce the success of the 2007 squad. It's not a big unit, but what they lack in size, they make up for in speed. Returning free safety Courtney Green, cornerbacks Devin and Jason McCourty all return to anchor a pass defense that was fifth in the nation.

Greg Schiano is a young, successful coach who's turned down offers from Miami and Michigan the past two years. Joe Paterno is a thousand years old and is widely rumored to be entering his final season as Penn State's head coach. Schiano was a Penn State defensive backs coach back before he came to prominence as Miami's defensive coordinator. Add it all up and...

Barring a last-minute power struggle or change of heart, the source indicated that this will be Paterno's last season in Happy Valley, and that Penn State would move quickly after Schiano at season's end.

That's an internet sportsmag called The Phanatic that covers the sports of Philadelphia and environs. Though few have heard of them, they seem to be a relatively up-and-up lot and do feature a couple hundred thousand hits on their site counter. Take or leave that as you please.

Penn State blogs naturally go "urk!?!" at mention of this since Schiano appears to be the only truly attractive option available to Penn State should this be Joe Paterno's last year of vaguely guiding actual Penn State head coach Tom Bradley, nominally the defensive coordinator.

Color this guy skeptical, since the Phanatic's article is explicitly couched in anonymity and vagueness. From appearances, coaching searches are always but always fiascoes. Even if the Phanatic's source is Graham Spanier himself, the situation will change a thousand times before a new Penn State coach is named.

Evidence? Last year during the Michigan coaching search a highly reliable tipster told me Michigan had come to an agreement with its new head coach: Greg Schiano.

Was it really only four years ago that the Big East was in danger of losing it's BCS status? Miami and Virginia Tech left in 2003 and Boston College in 2004. The conference sent Pitt, one of several 8-4 teams in the Big East to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. And there wasn't much reason to think the conference was going to get better any time soon. The conference was written off by the media and the blogospher didn't even bother to poke fun.

But something happened last week that most of us didn't even notice. The Big East was granted a spot in the BCS through 2013.

The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage. "It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."

You'd never make it as a blogger Mr. Tranghese. You need to rub it in someones face every once in a while. The least you could do is hold up one of those foam we're #1 hands. Or one of six, I guess. How bout a little woot-woot? Oh fine!

Despite the picture on the right, you can't just point to West Virginia and say their two BCS bowl victories and three straight top ten finishes are the reason. But I won't argue with you if you do. It really has been the improvement of several teams in the Big East that has brought the conference back to respectability. Louisville was expected to be one of the better teams in the conference. And mostly, they've come through. But the real surprise has been the improvement of South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. And more recently, Connecticut.

While the conference still isn't flooding the first round of the NFL draft with players, it is putting a lot more teams in the top 25. Sure, some coaches have left for "greener" pastures. Others like Greg Schiano and Jim Leavitt have made commitments to their schools that don't involve contracts. There's a balance, and certainly enough rising programs and programs that are there to keep the Big East respectable. At least until the Big 11 10 decides to add another team. Wankers.