There was 2001 Miami.

There was Dwight Freeny.

There was the ACC raid, West Virginia’s Sugar Bowl stunner and the undefeated Bearcats. Officially launched in 1991, the Big East Football Conference’s second decade was one of transition. Twelve teams called the league home at one point and nine won at least a share of a league title (Temple lost its chance forever, Rutgers and South Florida are still waiting theirs’).

Of the current eight members, seven have been nationally ranked while in this configuration. Seven have won bowl games and three have had to twice make coaching changes (Cincinnati, Louisville, Syracuse).

This last year of the decade suggests the Big East has stabilized, and may be on an ascension that sticks. But that won’t be certain till Jan. 1, in what will formally be a new decade. So before then, let’s take a look at the decade that was in Big East football.

First, The Big East’s Top Five Teams of the 2000s.

In chronological order…

2001 Miami – Sure, Larry Coker was in his first year, but Butch Davis had left him with a roster of 16 eventual first-round NFL draft picks and 12 Pro-Bowlers. Ed Reed, Clinton Portis, Frank Gore, Jeremy Shockey – is there any wonder in the Hurricanes going 12-0, outscoring opponents 512-117 and bludgeoning Nebraska, 37-14, in the Rose Bowl? 

2002 Miami – The Hurricanes lost 11 players to the NFL and then again rattled off 12 straight wins. They demolished no. 6 Florida, 41-16, on the road and only one little, late, late (late!) yellow flag kept them from a second consecutive national title. (Craig Krenzel’s fourth-down pass fell to the ground, line judge Derrick Bowers signaled incomplete and as the Miami sideline started celebrating, field judge Terry Porter – from the back corner of the end zone – threw a flag. Porter said Miami corner Glenn Sharpe interfered with Chris Gamble, Ohio State got a new set of downs on the one-yard line and then won in an OT that never should’ve been, 31-24.)

2005 West Virginia – Uber-freshmen Pat White and Steve Slaton led the Mountaineers to an 11-1 mark that year, with the sole loss coming in a 34-17 setback against third-ranked Virginia Tech. The game that will forever mark that season, though, is the 38-35 upset of SEC-champ Georgia, in a Sugar Bowl that was moved to the Bulldogs’ backyard Georgia Dome because of Hurricane Katrina. The win revived the Big East’s credibility after the ACC’s raid and the media’s subsequent near-constant denigration.

2006 Louisville – Bobby Petrino put together and Brian Brohm ran an offense that averaged a shade under 40 points a game and led the nation in yards. The Cardinals trounced a Miami team that stomped on its logo 31-7 (Miami should’ve known better: after Rutgers did the same the year before, Louisville had hung a 56-5 beating on the Scarlet Knights) and brushed aside ACC champ Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. A 28-25 nail-biter at Rutgers was all that kept the Cards from a perfect season.

2009 Cincinnati – This team’s story won’t be fully written until the Jan. 1 Sugar Bowl is in the books, but the Bearcats belong regardless of how that final chapter reads. They opened the season with an annihilation of Rutgers at a sold-out, newly-expanded Rutgers Stadium. They flew across the country and ended Oregon State’s 13-year old home non-conference win streak. They won a clash of 5-0 teams at South Florida and they completed an undefeated regular season with a three-touchdown comeback at no. 14 Pittsburgh – while both snow and Brian Kelly rumors swirled.

Honorable mention: 2007 West Virginia