Tony Pike and Co. sit atop PRT's Power Rankings after Week 1

One week down, an entire season to go.  I'm going to take a weekly snapshot of how the Big East stacks up at the moment.  These rankings are based on how teams are playing right now, and how I think they would match-up on a neutral field, today.  Right now we don't know a lot about many of the teams, so I'm going to cop out and use some ties (yes, I do think these teams would tie on a neutral field).

Big East Power Rankings:  Week 1

1.  Cincinnati:  Dominant.  Jaw-dropping.  Superb.  Use whatever word you want to describe Cincy's dismantling of Rutgers on Monday.  The word I'm going with is "complete".  It wasn't just the passing game.  It wasn't just the running game.  It was everything.  The defense played great, the special teams was solid, and the offense was other-worldly.  If you were doubting the Bearcats coming into the season (and I was), doubt no more. 

T-2.  West Virignia:  The game was closer than it should have been, and giving up 20 points to Liberty is not very good.  But it was the first game of the year, and Jarrett Brown provided over 300+ yards of offense.  WVU gets a chance at revenge against East Carolina this weekend....but be careful Moutaineers....

T-2.  Pittsburgh:  Pitt slowly dismantled Youngstown State in a convincing 38-3 victory.  The defense gave up less than 160 yards of total offense and the Panthers may have found their replacement for Shady McCoy in RB Dion Lewis who had 3 TD's on the day (2 via the ground). 

T-2.  South Florida:  Don't let the 42-7 final score fool you.  The game against Wofford was an actual game for the 1st half, then the superiority of USF's athletes took over.  Matt Grothe was unspectacular, yet solid, and the defense was stout.  We won't know much about this team until the game against Florida State in 3 weeks.

5.  Connecticut:  Besides the Cincy victory, the Huskies probably had the best win of the opening weekend.  UConn went into hostile MAC territory (against a solid MAC team), and won a game it easily could have lost.  The passing game still wasn't there for UConn, but the rushing game more than made up for it with over 250 yards rushing.  The upcoming game is huge for the Huskies, get a W against North Carolina and the Huskies will be afterthoughts no more.

6.  Rutgers:  This was tough.  I really thought about putting Rutgers 8th (and rightfully they do deserve to be there after that all-timer stinker on Monday), but I still think that if you lined up the Scarlet Knights against Louisville or Syracuse today the team would get the job done.  It's gut-check time for Rutgers.  They get Howard and FIU over the next 2 weeks to work out the kinks before the showdown with Maryland.  If they can beat the Terps, they'll have momentum heading into a favorable Big East schedule in October and be back to 4-1 overall.

7.  Syracuse:  Welcome back to some form of relevancy Orange fans.  Greg Paulus looked OK under center (though how he's going to survive the entire season I have no idea:  He's so small), and the Orange did rally back from that disastrous start.  The defense looked strong especially along the front 4.  Unfortunately they head into JoePaville this weekend, a harsh place to rebound after a heartbreaking loss.

8.  Louisville:  Yes Cardinal fans, you did win (which is more than RU and SU can say).  But you did it in unconvincing fashion against a horrible Indiana State team (one of the worst in the FCS).  Justin Burke's first career start was something to forget (0 TD's, 2 INTS), but old reliable RB Victor Anderson was there to bail Louisville out (2 TD's).  The Cardinals are off this week before taking on Kentucky on the 19th.

So there you have it folks.  Agree?  Disagree?  Just want to post your own rankings?  Leave your comments below and let's have some good old fashioned debate.