ESPN/Adelson's thoughts on Big East scheduling for 2013

[ponyboy]

...I applaud what the Big East did with its biggest rivalry games in 2013. The league scheduled them to end the season. First, USF plays at UCF and SMU plays at Houston on Nov. 29. The Big East should work hard to build up these two rivalries, as these four teams remain in the league for the foreseeable future.

Five of the league's 10 games in Week 1 are being played on either Thursday or Friday. Of those five, two are very intriguing -- Rutgers at Fresno State on Thurs., Aug. 29, and Texas Tech at SMU on Fri., Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Biggest nonconference day? That would be Sept. 21, when Michigan plays at UConn, Arkansas travels to play Rutgers and SMU is at Texas A&M. Michigan and Texas A&M are expected to be ranked in the Top 25. Meanwhile, Rutgers will be hosting an SEC opponent on its campus for the first time in school history.

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/colleges ... le-release

[Dukie]

I have to say it's nice to see SMU-Houston noted as one of the key rivalries in this new conference. Things are not perfect but they are improved.

I think back to when the WAC 8 got dumped by the MWC 8, followed by TCU's upgrade to CUSA. At that time, among the SWC left-behinds, SMU was locked in with Rice and badly trailed TCU and Houston. Today, SMU is locked in with Houston, Rice is gone (sorry, Rice!), and SMU still badly trails TCU. Not heaven, but clearly better. Now just got to survive the end of JJ and win some games.