Big East's reputation on line in Sugar Bowl

<p>Downgraded. Diluted. Downtrodden. West Virginia has heard all the criticisms of the so-called Big Least.</p><p>As if the Mountaineers don't have enough to worry about with battle-tested Georgia in Monday's Sugar Bowl, there's the added pressure of propping up the reputation of their beleaguered conference.</p><p>"I still don't think nobody wants to give us a chance," said West Virginia quarterback Pat White. "They don't think there's competition in the Big East. They don't think we can compete."</p><p>There's no doubt the conference lost its luster after Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference.</p><p>Naysayers said the Big East, which debuted in football more than a decade ago, lacked a dominant program and didn't deserve an automatic Bowl Championship Series berth.</p><p>The criticism didn't cease despite the addition this year of Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati.</p><p>No. 11 West Virginia (10-1), picked to finish third in the Big East this season, shared or won the outright conference title for the third straight season to earn its first BCS bowl bid.</p><p>Never mind that the Mountaineers played only five teams with winning records in the regular season.</p><p>Never mind that they're ranked lower than six two-loss teams, including No. 8 Georgia (10-2).</p><p>"I can't worry about what everybody else thinks. We're here," West Virginia safety Jahmile Addae said Thursday. "Whoever else is not here and wants to gripe about it, that's obviously their problem.</p><p>"I've been here for five years. We've been the underdog and always come out on top. We've been winning the Big East since Miami and Virginia and all those teams were in our conference."</p><p>With those heavyweights now gone, Big East teams went 19-13 against non-conference competition this season, including 0-6 against ranked opponents.</p><p>How the revamped conference fares in bowls may also help shape opinion of its renewed vitality.</p><p>The Big East went 2-3 in 2003 _ the final season for Miami and Virginia Tech _ and 2-2 a year ago, when Boston College was in its last season. Their void allowed others to earn rare postseason berths in 2005.</p><p>Rutgers got its first bowl bid since 1978, losing to Arizona State in the Insight Bowl. South Florida, which started playing football in 1997, will make its first bowl appearance on Saturday against N.C. State in the Meineke Bowl.</p><p>The conference's other bid went to No. 15 Louisville, which meets No. 12 Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl. The league would have had a fifth bowl-eligible team had Connecticut not lost five of its final six games.</p><p>"Certainly there has been some criticism in recent years, but I haven't heard any in recent months," said Nick Carparelli, an associate Big East commissioner.</p><p>"We're real excited about where we are. We have two legitimate top 20 teams. West Virginia and Louisville, their impact players are young players who are going to be around for a couple of years."</p><p>West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez doesn't sense any added pressure of carrying the Big East's banner and doesn't want his players to feel it, either.</p><p>"The league has gotten bashed a little bit. And we're the smallest league, too. I think that has something to do with it," he said. "We don't have 12 teams in our league. It's an easier target to say, 'hey they're not worthy.'</p><p>"We've got a lot of proving to do, but so do a lot of other people. There's teams in the BCS bowls that don't have as good a record as we do. You could say they had a tougher conference schedule. I don't know. I just worry about us."</p><p>Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley is worried about the Mountaineers, too.</p><p>"They score a lot of points. They stop people. So you really can't say they don't deserve to be in this game," he said. "They're 10-1. They're one of the best teams in the country. That's why they're in this game."</p>

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