Big East Preview: Pitt Finally Claims The Crown

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Among power conferences, the Big East has become the butt of jokes in some college football circles, but what folks overlook is that it's actually been a pretty good league.

Thanks to three different teams, the Big East has had five squads finish in the AP top 10 in the last five years. The PAC 10, thanks mostly to USC, also has produced five and the ACC, the league to which former Big East brothers Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech bolted, has sent only three teams to such a lofty perch over that period.

Remember 2006, when Rutgers, West Virginia and Louisville all were ranked in the top 10 with a combined record of 25-2 at one point in November? That same week, only the mighty SEC had a comparable mark, with Florida, Arkansas and LSU also among the AP elite at 26-4. Not bad company.

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The Heisman Trophy: Which Sophomore Will Win It?

Second-Year Player Could
Earn Coveted Honor Again

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Because of the new rule that only a sophomore can win the Heisman Trophy, there are some angry upperclassmen heading into the 2010 college football season.

Obviously that's not a rule, but the last three winners — Tim Tebow in 2007, Sam Bradford in 2008 and Mark Ingram in 2009 — all were second-year players, and there's no reason to think it can't happen again this year.

Certainly Ingram has a chance — maybe two — to repeat the feat, but if he falls short like Tebow and Bradford did, here are a few sophomores who should definitely stay in the mix as long as their health cooperates in 2010:

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No. 15: Pittsburgh Panthers

The One Great Season College Football Countdown continues Monday. We'll be counting down the preseason Top 25 teams in 2010. Today's No. 15 is Pittsburgh.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

When your top returners are an 1,800-yard sophomore running back and the Co-Big East's Defensive Player of the Year, it's safe to expect big things in the season ahead. And that's what's up at the University of Pittsburgh.

After two close misses in 2008 and 2009, Coach Dave Wannstedt's Panthers appear poised to snatch Big East supremacy away from Cincinnati.

They'll do so with running back Dion Lewis and defensive end Greg Romeus leading the way. Lewis is a Heisman Trophy candidate who could become the fourth straight sophomore to win college football's highest honor.

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