Ohio St. does have a chance; torn over Michigan-ND, more (cont.)

The Mailbag is teaming up with DonorsChoose.org to provide college football fans the opportunity to support public-school classrooms by displaying their passion for their favorite conference. Go to DonorsChoose.org/sishowdown, click on the link to your favorite conference (all 11 FBS conferences and independents are represented) and you'll see a list of classroom projects from that league's states, all of them in desperate need of funding. Each project includes a detailed description straight from that classroom's teacher. Between now and Sept. 24, pledges of $10 or more to a specific project will be counted toward the overall total raised by each conference's fans. Will the ever-rabid fans of the SEC win this Showdown just as their teams have done on the field the past two years? Will fans of the Big Ten show that this is their year? Visit DonorsChoose.org/sishowdown to see the latest standings and contribute to the cause. Stewart Mandel's Mailbag Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Stewart Mandel on Twitter

To what do you attribute the horrible way the entire Big East has been performing this season? Granted, there have been only two games, but almost every conference team is playing poorly. Do you think this turnaround from five bowl wins just two years ago is a reason to be scared? I believed the Big East was ready to play with the big boys of the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12, but if the first two games are any indication, they clearly are not ready.
-- Arnav, Piscataway, N.J.

When you only have eight teams in your conference, your margin for error is pretty thin. The past few years, the Big East was blessed with a confluence of great coaches (Bobby Petrino, Rich Rodriguez, Greg Schiano, Jim Leavitt, et al) and star players (Brian Brohm, Ray Rice, Pat White, Steve Slaton). Suddenly the first two coaches on that list are gone, as are all but White among the marquee players, and the conference finds itself in a down cycle. It's not that different than what the ACC and Big Ten have endured the past few seasons. The difference is, even in down years, those 11- or 12-team leagues still produce at least one or two elite teams. The Big East did so the past three years -- West Virginia beat both an SEC and Big 12 champion in BCS games, and Louisville finished sixth in the country in 2006 -- but it's not looking good for this year.

As I've said 1,000 times, everything is cyclical, and there's no reason the Big East can't return to its recent level soon enough -- but a lot's going to have to happen. Syracuse needs to put Greg Robinson out of his misery and start getting its ship in order. Steve Kragthorpe needs to get Louisville's ship in order, or AD Tom Jurich needs to find someone that can. Schiano needs to prove Rutgers wasn't a one-hit wonder. And obviously, the jury's still out on West Virginia. Bill Stewart and his staff have made tremendous inroads recruiting, but all bets are off once White leaves town.

In the short term, the conference's best prospects may be USF and Cincinnati. The Bulls can launch themselves into the national discussion with a win over Kansas on Friday, and Leavitt's program is clearly on solid footing. The Bearcats' credibility for this season was dealt a pretty damaging blow in the rout at Oklahoma, but if you watched the game, you saw that Brian Kelly has no shortage of high-caliber athletes on that team. Cincy will continue to be competitive for as long as Kelly is there. At the end of the day, though, the Big East in its current incarnation will never stack up top-to-bottom with most of the bigger conferences. Their best hope is to continue churning out an elite team or two each year.

I know its early in the season with a lot of football left to play, but after a very impressive win over Oregon State, is it possible that Penn State will be the 2004 Auburn of this year? They started so low in the polls, and teams such as Alabama and ECU have jumped them in the rankings. As improbable as it is to have multiple undefeated teams at the end of the year, is PSU in danger of being left out of the national title game already?
-- Staci, Atlanta

Staci, Staci, Staci. You must be a newcomer to the Mailbag. I'm publishing your e-mail largely as a public service reminder that we don't discuss BCS doomsday scenarios in this space until at least mid-October. And after last year's events, maybe we shouldn't even bother until the second-to-last week of the season.

I will say, however, that any Penn State fans holding similar visions of grandeur ought to root hard for Ohio State on Saturday. That would knock one potential undefeated team out of the equation, with the Nittany Lions holding an opportunity to dethrone the other.

I will now take a shower because I feel dirty just for writing that much.

Two weeks in and I'm curious to see what you think of Houston Nutt as the answer to the "Ole Miss/Clemson Syndrome?" At least admit that they stand a chance at a bowl this year, albeit a Christmas Day or pre-New Year's one. Plus, a healthy Greg Hardy and Peria Jerry will hopefully provide some firepower to the defense just as things get interesting come the end of September.
-- Joseph Powell, Atoka, Tenn.

Nutt is having exactly the type of impact I anticipated. (Kindly overlook the presence of Pittsburgh on that list, would you please?) He's taken the talent Ed Orgeron assembled (including transfer QB Jevan Snead, who looked outstanding against Wake Forest) and molded them into a team that should be much more competitive in the SEC this season. Anything less than a bowl bid should be considered a disappointment.

But Ole Miss/Clemson Syndrome does not refer to simple bowl aspirations. Any team's fans have the right to expect regular bowl bids, especially when they're giving out 66 of them a year. According to the definition given on page 105 of Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls, Ole Miss/Clemson Syndrome (formerly known as Auburn/Clemson Syndrome) is "the phenomenon by which fans of historically second-tier programs delude themselves into thinking that one isolated period of greatness ... is more representative of their team's rightful place in the sport's hierarchy than its other one hundred or so years of football." Ole Miss fans have been waiting 40 years for a savior to return them to their brief glory days of the 1960s. Nutt is a good coach, but I don't think he's the guy that's going to deliver the Rebels their first SEC title since 1963.

Speaking of which, it would be pretty funny if David Cutcliffe leads Duke to an ACC title first.

Come on, Stewart. Ralph Friedgen has got to be placed on the HOT SEAT. After a squeaker with Delaware and a loss to Middle Tennessee State, how can he not be? His best years were with players he did not recruit. I just don't get it.
-- David Kennedy, Woodbine, Ga.

It's been an awfully rough start for The Fridge, and I don't get it, either. I still believe the Terps are far more talented than they've shown so far and are in fact in the upper half of the ACC in terms of overall talent (which says something about the ACC). If Maryland turns things around and finishes at least .500, Friedgen will have nothing to worry about.

If, however, these first two games marked the beginning of a full-on nightmare season, one where Maryland sinks to the bottom third of the ACC, then AD Debbie Yow needs to rethink her blind loyalty to Friedgen. Because you're right, his best years are starting to look more and more distant, and if the Terps can't contend for an ACC title in the league's current, weakened condition, what hope do they have once Miami, Florida State and Georgia Tech inevitably improve?

How annoying is this "S-E-C" chant at the end of SEC games? Since you are more involved with college football than the rest of us, did you hear chants of "SUN-BELT" at the end of the Maryland-Middle Tennessee game? How about chants of "BCS-Eligible-School-Not-in-a-Conference" at the end of the Notre Dame game? Just wondering.
-- Jeff Pretzel, Houston

Generally, I've got no problem with conference pride and a little chest-thumping, but this little tradition -- much like the "over-rated" chant and students storming the court in basketball -- is going to lose its meaning pretty quickly due to excessive use. When I heard Florida fans chanting it at the end of the Miami game, my immediate reaction was: Are you kidding me? You're breaking out the S-E-C chant for beating a mid-level ACC team? Show a little restraint, people.

And please tell me Wake Forest fans didn't break out an "A-C-C" chant after knocking off Ole Miss.

I can't wait to tell you how wrong you were in your preseason estimation of K-State. Are you nervous yet about how foolish you are going to feel in retrospect?
-- Robert, Wichita

Yes. I am literally sitting here, shaking in terror at the prospect of Ron Prince's team shattering everything I know to be true about the world.

But I also can't even remember what I predicted for the Wildcats and can't say I yet realized their season had started.

Stewart Mandel's book Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls: Tackling the Chaos and Controversy that Reign Over College Football, is now available in paperback, with an update chapter on the wild 2007 season.