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Big East releases full 2013 Memphis football schedule

March 6, 2013 by Kevin Cerrito Leave a Comment

Earlier this morning, the “Big East” (as the conference is still known today) released its 2013 football schedules for all 10 of its football playing members.

Memphis’ first year in the new conference will include a Wednesday night nationally televised game against renewed rival Cincinnati.

Here is the full 2013 University of Memphis Football Schedule:

Sat, Sept. 7 vs. Duke
Sat, Sept. 14 at Middle Tennessee
Sat, Sept. 21 vs. Arkansas State
Sat, Oct. 5 vs. UCF
Sat, Oct. 12 at Houston
Sat, Oct. 19 vs. SMU
Wed, Oct. 30 vs. Cincinnati (8 pm, ESPN2)
Sat, Nov. 9 vs. Tennessee-Martin
Sat, Nov. 16 at USF
Sat, Nov. 23 at Louisville
Sat, Nov. 30 vs. Temple
Sat, Dec. 7 at Connecticut

Email: kevin@memphisport.com
Twitter: @cerrito

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Filed Under: The Big Features, Tiger Football Tagged With: Big East, C-USA, Cincinnati, Cincy, ESPN, Memphis Football, schedule, tiger football

What’s in a Name?: New name ideas for old Big East

February 28, 2013 by C.J. Hurt 1 Comment

With the seven Catholic schools leaving and taking the name “Big East” with them, the no name conference, that will add Houston, Tulane, East Carolina, SMU, Memphis, and UCF for the 2013 season, is in desperate need of a new name.

Perhaps the most confusing thing about all of this conference realignment is what to name these new conferences. The Big 12 has 10 teams, the Big 10 has 12 teams, and the SEC has teams outside of the Southeastern region of the United States. It can be confusing, but if you change the Big 12 to the Big 10 and the Big 10 to the Big 12 life will make sense.

Luckily for the remaining teams in the old Big East, there are some solid options for the new name of the Big East. Here are a few conference name suggestions for the remaining non-Catholic schools in the old Big East:

Conference Formerly Known as the Big East
Think of that picture like the symbol that the artist formerly known as “Prince” uses. Any symbol will work, a dollar sign with a huge slash to symbolize the lack of money the teams formerly in the Big East will make compared to the BCS conference schools, or a frowny face which will show how sad the schools are for not being invited to the Catholic 7′s new “Big East”. Think about it, how many conferences are recognized by just a symbol? None, so being able to add a unique twist to the conference name might actually help make up for some of the revenue that is going to be lost. Just pick a symbol, throw in “the conference formerly known as the Big East”, and let the merchandising of the conference begin.

Conference USA 2.0
Makes sense to me. After all, the Big East certainly likes snatching teams from C-USA. When they first expanded in 2005, the Big East took C-USA football members Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida. This time they take Houston, SMU, Tulane, Memphis, Central Florida, and East Carolina of C-USA. With the departure of Louisville to the ACC, this makes eight of the 12 schools (Navy is not scheduled to join until 2015) former members of C-USA.

Please Take Me Next Atlantic Coast Conference Conference
The PTMNACCC is a mouthful, but when you take into account that the ACC pillages the Big East much like the Big East pillages C-USA you can understand the name. With Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, and Syracuse leaving to go along with Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College from 2005, the Big East is looking like a minor league farm system for the ACC.

Metro Conference
This was the conference Memphis, Cincy, and Tulane belonged to before it folded resulting in the formation of C-USA. Since C-USA and Big East are now taken, and nobody has the name Metro Conference, it also makes sense. Most of the universities in the old Big East are in major metropolitan areas so the name works from that angle as well.

Catholic 7
Since St. John’s, Seton Hall, Marquette, Providence, DePaul, Villanova and Georgetown are taking the Big East name with them, why can’t the old Big East teams take the name those schools have been known by the past few months. Stealing the name of the seven schools that crippled an already struggling conference, seems like the right thing to do to spite them.

CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. If you think you have a better name for the new look Big East tweet him @churtj09 #newBigEast for his and your amusement. He also live tweets from different college football games throughout the Mid-South.

Do College Football Bowl Games Matter?

January 8, 2012 by C.J. Hurt 6 Comments

By now we all know that the FBS is the only sport in America that does not have a playoff system in place to decide a national champion. Instead, their post season is comprised of a proverbial smorgasbord of 34 bowl games, scattered throughout the nation that make most college football fans’ mouths salivate. There is not much that rivals the pageantry, tradition, and intensity of bowl season in college sports. However, critics have argued for years that the bowl system is not an adequate way to decide a national champion,but does that make bowls pointless or obsolete? No, bowls are no more pointless or obsolete than your least favorite food is at a buffet.

This year's Liberty Bowl featured Vanderbilt and Cincinnati. Who will remember this a year from now. Photo by Justin Ford.

To say nobody cares about smaller bowls like the BBVA Compass Bowl or the GoDaddy.com Bowl is like me saying “Why does this buffet serve green peas? Nobody likes them.” It is a gross over exaggeration. I am trying to force my tastes and opinions upon the rest of the world, but there are people who love green peas so it matters to them.

Likewise the bowls matter certain people like the host cities, teams, and fans of the teams. For an example let’s look at this year’s AutoZone Liberty Bowl. Nationally the game had no relevance at all. It was just another bowl game in a long list of bowls that happens every year. Honestly it was the icky stuff on the buffet of the college football bowl season that most people did not want to eat.

Yet, Memphis was crawling with tourists from Nashville and Cincinnati, bringing in much needed revenue to a struggling economy. This is a common trait for most bowls, as they are often times one of the biggest events in the host city, bringing in tourism dollars for the host city. For evidence of this just look at Beale Street the weekend of the game, which was swamped with fans from Cincinnati and Nashville. Add to it the over 57,000 fans that packed the stadium to see Vanderbilt and Cincinnati play, and it is clear that the fans of the two schools involved cared about the bowl.

We know that the bowl games are important to the host cities and the fans of the two teams, but what about the players. They play 12 (sometimes 13) regular season games, so does one more game really matter to them? It certainly looked that way in all of the bowls this season, and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl was no different.

The players for both teams came out juiced and ready to play some intense football. You could tell during warm ups that these two teams were going to give it everything they could. Cincinnati missed the bowl season entirely last year, and was excited to partake in this year’s festivities. While this marked only the fifth time in their history that the Commodores have played in a bowl. This game resembled the atmosphere of a rivalry, not just another game. Both teams had something to prove, and it showed in the quality of play on the football field.

It was not just Cincinnati vs. Vanderbilt, it was the speed of the SEC vs. the co-champion of the Big East. Team and (more importantly) conference pride was on the line at the Liberty Bowl, and pride is on the line in every other bowl as well. There are not enough games in the season between the AQ conferences so when two schools from two different AQ conferences face off it is a big deal. You could hear the anti-Big East chants as you were walking through Tiger Lane to the stadium. And at the end of the game, Bearcats fans were chanting “SEC sucks”. Not Vanderbilt sucks, but the entire conference sucks (I did not have the heart to tell Bearcats fans that they are co-champions of an AQ conference and they should beat the eighth place team in another conference.) This goes to show you that it is more than just another game on the schedule.

However, the nation does not care about the AutoZone Liberty Bowl anymore than I care about green peas (honestly the world would be a much better place without all peas). Unless you are a Bearcat or Commodore fan, you do not care that Isaiah Pead broke the record for rushing yards in a bowl game for Cincinnati, or that Casey Heyward tied the all-time interceptions record for Vanderbilt during the game. All the nation cares about are the big bowls with the big name schools. Sure the AutoZone Liberty Bowl was not the steak on the smorgasbord that is bowl season, but it was still a pretty good appetizer to get us ready for the BCS Championship Game.

Click here for The 2011 College Football TAMs Awards

CJ Hurt covers college football for MemphiSport. Follow him @churtj09 for live tweets from games.

-Photo by Justin Ford

Filed Under: The Big Features, Web Exclusives Tagged With: Cincinnati, Liberty Bowl, Vanderbilt