Meanwhile in a Swing State...

While College Football was under the radar on a particular Thursday night in September, the Cincinnati Bearcats weren't distracted. In their opener in the last Big East season as we know it, where a BCS bid will still ultimately be at stake, Cincy routed ACC-bound Pitt 34-10.

While RB George Winn made the lead of most stories with his 58-yard TD run on the Bearcats' first play from scrimmage, it's the Quarterback play that will eventually put them in the middle of the national discussion.

Meet Munchie.  Junior QB Benton Shannon "Munchie" Legaux was a big-time dual-threat recruit out of New Orleans, who filled in well for the injured Zach Collaros last season. Now it's his show.

Legaux, at 6'5" 199, is a bit unconventional with a long, loopy throwing motion. But he threw for 205 and 2 TD last night, and ran for 117 on top of that. And if you combine Butch Jones' system with Cincinnati's schedule, you could see Denard Robinson numbers by season's end (provided he stays healthy).

With West Virginia's exit for the Big 12, I only see two games the Bearcats won't be favored: Sept. 29 vs Virginia Tech (Fedex Field - Landover, MD) and October 26 at Louisville.

There are sneaky games like November 10 at Temple and home Nov. 23 vs South Florida, but the schedule sets up as nicely as any legit darkhorse could expect. If there wasn't enough to watch in Ohio this fall.

Time running out on the Big 12?

As someone who's invested years of his life in Big 12 country, this is somewhat heartbreaking. It's the stupid idealist in me, but moreso it's very shocking how quickly we got to this point.

I don't think anyone saw the seismic change that's about to occur coming...even a month ago.

Through the years I've had many off-the-record conversations with Big 12 conference and school administrators, and writers and broadcasters, and the changes discussed were always incremental.

From Ames, IA to Columbia, MO to OKC, salt and pepper shakers were moved around and there were scrawlings on cocktail napkins, but it was merely about pieces moved on a chessboard, not one domino creating complete chaos.

And this is how it got started:

I. The Big Ten needs a 12th team so they can have a football Championship game. Who do they take, Missouri? It's a natural fit geographically. And it's a big state school with a ton of competitive athletic platforms.

II. Who replaces Missouri in the Big 12? Arkansas seems like the right fit. Geographically, they're closer to the Big 12 schools than to the SEC ones anyway. And they've only been in the SEC since 1992, so it's not like they have great history there.

III. So who does the SEC take to replace Arkansas? Whomever they damn well choose. Florida State? Georgia Tech? Clemson? Virginia Tech is another football powerhouse and in the DC TV market. Or they can go after North Carolina and put them in the same hoop league as Kentucky.

But this was all speculation among low-level people who thought they knew something, myself included.

This week, Nebraska (not Missouri) moved to the Big Ten and Colorado went to the Pac-10. So now the Big Ten has 12 teams and the Big XII has 10 teams.

On Tuesday we will learn if Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and a reluctant Texas A&M join the soon-to-be newly-minted Pacific-16 Conference, whose league mission is not to gain the financial windfall of a conference championship, but rather 2 BCS bids, and a possible BCS title game between the two divisional champs.

What we learned this week is that there's College Football, and there's College Everything-Else. How else would a storied, transcendent program like Kansas basketball be left holding the bag in a remaining shell of a Big 12 conference with Iowa State, Kansas State, Missouri, and Baylor?

It's because while March Madness is a phenomenon, college basketball (and countless other collegiate sports) all amount to a pimple on the ass of college football.

But there is a loophole in all of this. The Big 12, so long as they maintain an 8-or-more team league, is still in the BCS - at least until the ruling class votes them out. They could add TCU, Utah, and Boise (maybe they should have waited a week before joining the Mountain West) and still remain viable in football.

It would be a similar situation to what the Big East was in a few years ago. After the defections of Virginia Tech, Boston College, and Miami to the ACC, the Big East was decimated - the stepchild of the BCS.

Then a funny thing happened, West Virginia beat Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl. Mike Tranghese, the Big East commissioner for 19 years, called that game the highlight of his career.

It was a two-decade regime that saw his conference take 3 men's basketball titles, and saw the UConn women's program become a dynasty. But it was that Sugar Bowl, when the Big East was so maligned in football, and the Mountaineers were such heavy underdogs to Georgia, that gave Tranghese the satisfaction that no national title in any other sport could have delivered.

So maybe the Big 12 has its head on the chopping block. But maybe it's just an opportunity to reinvent itself. The one thing we don't know is what the future holds...even if it appears to unfold in front of us.

A Bridge & Tunnel Hit and Run

"Don't let the past remind us of what we are, not now..." CSN

My yearly trip back to the old neighborhood was actually a trip to Newark. A train to a subway (I was embarrased I couldn't remember which was the express or the local) led me to my old front door. The slice of pizza was nostalgic. The old seat at the Dive Bar, although clear of smoke in the air, was just old. Seeing the family for dinner was comfortable.

Back to business - Seton Hall taking on St. John's in a Big East "old school" matchup in Newark. Now this takes me back. Back before the Big East was powered by teams like Louisville and Marquette. The Big East is like the Borg from Star Trek, assimilating teams left and right to add to an all-powerful collective.

It reminds me of what a Jersey kid and NYC dweller loved about the Big East. A couple of local schools who fed off local talent. Now St. John's and Seton Hall are fighting to stay relevant in the Big East 2.0. Both teams are very young - 8 of the 10 starters are sophomores, and the future is in their hands.

Hope you catch the action from "The Rock" - the Prudential Center. It's the newly minted jewel of downtown Newark, and may or may not have been built by Ralph Cipharetta representing Soprano family interests.