Let's take a second and be honest with each other, Big East football may be a lovely diversion that kills time in the early fall, but at the end of the day, that's all it is. Sure, we all get to have fun being a national joke and eventually one team sneaks into the BCS, but football isn't the reason we're here. With all due respect to South Florida and Rutgers fans, football is just something we do until the real fun starts (and hell, even USF started to figure that out last year). So, with that in mind, I'm thrilled to introduce our first edition of the SB Nation (and friends!) Big East basketball power rankings.
For those who are unfamiliar with the football version, I collect a single, simple ballot from each blog, ranking the teams 1-16. Each team only gets one voter, and for the few schools that are straggling in joining SB Nation, we've invited some of our friends from around the net. A team gets 16 points for a first place vote, 15 for second and so on. I total them up and give the results to you, with the individual ballots collected below the jump. Since we're all humble bloggers, we won't be able to pull together 16 ballots every week, but we'll always have enough to give you a good sample.
This 16-team behemoth of a conference is unwieldy to judge under any circumstances, and incredibly tough to call before everyone starts matching up, so this is going to be a bi-monthly feature until Big East play starts, at which point we'll start working double and be here every Monday for your enjoyment. One other new twist: I'm adding a homer and hater vote of the week.
Now, on to the actual poll. With this many teams, it's a bit of an endeavor to try and place everyone, but the wisdom of the crowds seems to have won out and picked a favored quintet to start us off. Pittsburgh was a heavy favorite, garnering six of the 10 first place votes, but Villanova was right on their heels, grabbing three. A bit further down (but not much) Georgetown, Syracuse and West Virginia all bunched up to finish off the fearsome fivesome.
That deserves a bit of clarification though, in the form of our first ever Hater Vote of the Week. You see, Syracuse would be flying a bit higher if it wasn't for their nemesis over at Casual Hoya who put all reason and logic aside and slotted the Orange 16th. That's some high-quality casual hatred right there.
Next up are Marquette and UConn who are joined by St. John's, Notre Dame and Louisville in the conference's giant, questionable middle. On one hand, I would not be surprised to see any of these teams in the NCAA tournament in March, and some might even make a run. On the other hand, I would be no more surprised to see any one of these teams at home in March (that's not entirely fair, Marquette should be good, and UConn will make it, but no one outside of Connecticut knows that yet).
Then of course, we hit the bottom of the conference. There is some talent here -- I'm looking at you Seton Hall -- but once you get down around the Providence's of the league, things get really ugly really fast. The one thing that did surprise me? The fact that the battle between Rutgers and DePaul to stay out of last place was so close. Then I noticed the Homer Vote of the Week. Yep, Blue Demons' Lair has DePaul in 11th place. Normally, I'd let that slide in the first ballot, this is the time to be optimistic after all. This isn't a normal situation though, because DePaul lost to Division-II Lewis in the preseason. Have you ever even heard of Lewis? Look, I don't care who you are. You just aren't allowed to lose to D-II schools. Period.
Well there you have it folks, basketball is back, and thank god for that. See you in two weeks.
1. Pittsburgh (6) (3-0): 155 points
2. Villanova (3) (1-0): 149 points
3. Georgetown (1-0): 130 points
4. Syracuse (1) (2-0): 128 points
5. West Virginia (1-0): 119 points
6. Marquette (2-0): 102 points
7. UConn (1-0): 97 points
8. St. John's (0-0): 87 points
9. Notre Dame (2-0): 85 points
10. Louisville (0-0): 83 points
11. Seton Hall (1-1): 61 points
12. Cincinnati (0-0): 54 points
13. South Florida (0-1): 37 points
14. Providence (1-0): 33 points
15. Rutgers (0-1): 20 points
16. DePaul (1-0): 19 points
Individual ballots after the jump.
Blue Demons' Lair:
1. Syracuse
2. Pittsburgh
3. Villanova
4. St. John's
5. West Virginia
6. Georgetown
7. Louisville
8. Marquette
9. UConn
10. Seton Hall
11. DePaul
12. Cincinnati
13. Notre Dame
14. Providence
15. Rutgers
16. South Florida
Card Chronicle:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Syracuse
3. Villanova
4. West Virginia
5. Marquette
6. Georgetown
7. St. John's
8. Notre Dame
9. Louisville
10. UConn
11. Seton Hall
12. Providence
13. Cincinnati
14. South Florida
15. DePaul
16. Rutgers
Cardiac Hill:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Villanova
3. Syracuse
4. Georgetown
5. UConn
6. West Virginia
7. Marquette
8. Louisville
9. Seton Hall
10. Notre Dame
11. Cincinnati
12. St. John's
13. Providence
14. South Florida
15. Rutgers
16. DePaul
Casual Hoya:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Georgetown
3. Villanova
4. West Virginia
5. Marquette
6. UConn
7. Seton Hall
8. St. John's
9. Notre Dame
10. Louisville
11. Cincinnati
12. South Florida
13. Providence
14. Rutgers
15. DePaul
16. Syracuse
Down the Drive:
1. Villanova
2. Pittsburgh
3. Syracuse
4. Georgetown
5. West Virginia
6. Marquette
7. UConn
8. St. John's
9. Louisville
10. Notre Dame
11. Seton Hall
12. Cincinnati
13. South Florida
14. Rutgers
15. Providence
16. DePaul
The East Coast Bias:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Villanova
3. Georgetown
4. Syracuse
5. Marquette
6. Notre Dame
7. West Virginia
8. UConn
9. St. John's
10. Louisville
11. Cincinnati
12. Seton Hall
13. South Florida
14. Providence
15. DePaul
16. Rutgers
The Nova Blog:
1. Villanova
2. Pittsburgh
3. Syracuse
4. UConn
5. West Virginia
6. Georgetown
7. Notre Dame
8. St. John's
9. Marquette
10. Louisville
11. Cincinnati
12. Seton Hall
13. Providence
14. South Florida
15. DePaul
16. Rutgers
Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Syracuse
3. Villanova
4. Georgetown
5. West Virginia
6. Notre Dame
7. Louisville
8. UConn
9. St. John's
10. Marquette
11. Cincinnati
12. Seton Hall
13. South Florida
14. Providence
15. Rutgers
16. DePaul
TheUConnBlog:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Villanova
3. Georgetown
4. Syracuse
5. West Virginia
6. Notre Dame
7. Marquette
8. UConn
9. St. John's
10. Louisville
11. Cincinnati
12. Seton Hall
13. South Florida
14. Providence
15. Rutgers
16. DePaul
Voodoo Five:
1. Villanova
2. Georgetown
3. Pittsburgh
4. Syracuse
5. West Virginia
6. Marquette
7. Louisville
8. UConn
9. St. John's
10. Notre Dame
11. South Florida
12. Seton Hall
13. Cincinnati
14. Rutgers
15. Providence
16. DePaul