Big East Football Power Rankings: Week 4

Oh boy is this conference bad. How bad? Well, to give you an idea, West Virginia, which has been sitting atop this poll since Week 1, lost and somehow improved, becoming our first unanimous choice for No. 1.

After that, everyone agrees that Louisville is bad and no one knows how to deal with the Big East's large, doughy middle. Take, for instance, South Florida: Two of our seven voters had it as the second-best team in the conference and two others had it dead last. It's not the only team that is all over the place, either. Syracuse's votes are scattered and UConn and Pittsburgh both do their fair share of bouncing around. Do yourself a favor and look at the individual ballots just to survey the carnage.

Syracuse snuck into the second spot. UConn, looking all fresh-faced with Cody Endres at the helm, took third, with Pittsburgh and Rutgers nipping at their heels. Just for kicks, I looked up the Huskies' week-to-week ranking so far. They started in seventh, jumped to third, plummeted right back down to seventh and are now third. Makes sense to me.

In our internal poll debate, Meacham did a spectacular job of summarizing each team based on good wins (there aren't any) and bad losses (plenty of those). I've included it after the jump with the individual ballots. Check it out.

1. West Virginia (7) (3-1): 56 points -- @ LSU L 20-14 -- Last Week:1

2. Syracuse (3-1): 35 points -- vs. Colgate W 42-7 -- Last Week: 5

3. UConn (2-2): 34 points -- vs. Buffalo W 45-21 -- Last Week: 7

4 (tie). Rutgers (2-1): 31 points -- vs. North Carolina L 17-13 -- Last Week: 3

4 (tie). Pittsburgh (1-2): 31 points -- vs. Miami L 31-3 -- Last Week: 2

6. South Florida (2-1): 30 points -- vs. Western Kentucky W 24-12 -- Last Week: 4

7. Cincinnati (1-2): 28 points -- vs. Oklahoma L 31-29 -- Last Week: 6

8. Louisville (1-2): 10 points -- BYE -- Last Week: 8

Past rankings: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3

Individual ballots after the jump.

And here's Meacham:

When I ranked by gut I had Syracuse as #2, but my brain won't allow that to happen, so I'll break it down by resume.

To clarify: Good wins are wins over good teams, bad wins are wins over bad teams, good losses are close losses to good teams, bad losses are either 1) losses to bad teams or 2) blowout losses to good teams.

Cincinnati
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Indiana State
Good losses: Oklahoma
Bad losses: Fresno State, NC State (maybe)

UConn
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Buffalo, Texas Southern
Good losses: Michigan (maybe)
Bad losses: Temple

Louisville
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Eastern Kentucky
Good losses: Oregon State
Bad losses: Kentucky

Pittsburgh
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: New Hampshire
Good losses: Utah
Bad losses: Miami

Rutgers
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Norfolk State, FIU
Good losses: North Carolina (maybe)
Bad losses: N/A

South Florida
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Stony Brook, WKU
Good losses: Florida (for a half)
Bad losses: N/A

Syracuse
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Akron, Maine, Colgate
Good losses: N/A
Bad losses: Washington

West Virginia
Good wins: N/A
Bad wins: Maryland, Marshall, Coastal Carolina
Good losses: LSU
Bad losses: N/A

Christ is that awful. So here's my ranking, based off that:

1) West Virginia
2) UConn
3) Syracuse
4) Rutgers
5) South Florida
6) Pittsburgh
7) Cincinnati
8) Louisville

Yeah...so I dropped Syracuse to 3rd based on the fact that Akron might be the worst MAC team. It's a travesty that I am forced to rank the Orange that high with that joke of a schedule.

I don't like this poll anymore.

Card Chronicle:
1. West Virginia
2. Pittsburgh
3. Rutgers
4. Cincinnati
5. UConn
6. Syracuse
7. Louisville
8. South Florida

Down the Drive:
1. West Virginia
2. Cincinnati
3. Rutgers
4. UConn
5. South Florida
6. Pittsburgh
7. Syracuse
8. Louisville

On The Banks:
1. West Virginia
2. UConn (Endres makes that much of a difference, even if their defense blows.)
3. Cincinnati (ugh)
4. Rutgers (kill me)
5. Pittsburgh
6. Syracuse
7. Louisville
8. South Florida

The Smoking Musket:
1. West Virginia
2. South Florida
3. Syracuse
4. Rutgers
5. Pittsburgh
6. UConn
7. Cincinnati
8. Louisville

Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician:
1. West Virginia
2. Syracuse
3. South Florida
4. UConn
5. Pittsburgh
6. Rutgers
7. Cincinnati
8. Louisville

The UConn Blog:
1. West Virginia
2. UConn
3. Syracuse
4. Rutgers
5. South Florida
6. Pittsburgh
7. Cincinnati
8. Louisville

Voodoo Five:
1. West Virginia
2. South Florida
3. Pittsburgh
4. Syracuse
5. Cincinnati
6. UConn
7. Louisville
8. Rutgers