Be sure to check out the video player again. Our fabulous SNY producers have spliced together a montage of player interviews Adam Zagoria and I did Wednesday at Big East men’s basketball media day. Edgar Sosa, Andy Rautins, Luke Harangody, Deonta Vaughn, Devin Ebanks, Kemba Walker – it’s an all-star team. Off the court too. These guys are all smooth talkers… I might’ve been more conscious of the camera than they were.

The public option’s back on the table… Screaming is the new spanking? My mom did both and I turned out fine… The costs of higher education are out of control. Not surprised which Big East schools are on the list. But I’ll tell you this: I wouldn’t send my kid to my alma mater at this price…

Surprised me: In the last six years, Cincinnati’s taken the Keg of Nails only once. (Rivals.com)

No change in Tony Pike’s status. Read: he’s day to day. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Louisville’s offensive firepower got that way through walk-and-talks. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Police say witnesses to the Jasper Howard murder are being warned not to come forward on internet postings. Kashif Moore, who held a bleeding Howard in his arms, and Mike Smith, who desperately tried to staunch that blood flow, will play Saturday. When it all shakes out on the field, UConn could have the edge. (Connecticut Post)

Randy Edsall is so much more than a football coach. (Republican-American)

The entire Huskies team will go to the funeral Monday and two memorial funds have been set up. (Hartford Courant)

Great Q&A with Pitt AD Steve Pederson. He talks about a ninth football team. Durable, punishing back thy name is Dion Lewis. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Henry Hynoski’s stats: not so good. Translation: it’s irrelevant. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Breaking down Rutgers-Army. Here too. (Star-Ledger, Home News)

Wild story about Rutgers’ last trip up to Army. (SNY.tv)

This is South Florida’s first go at back-to-back nationally ranked league opponents. The Bulls will be keying on Dion Lewis. (Tampa Tribune)

Doug Marrone keeps staring at Syracuse’s third down numbers. If only that was enough to change them. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Jarrett Brown talks us through his first-ever concussion. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Brown’s availability will be a game-time decision Saturday. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

By the way, that hit on Brown was totally illegal. (Times West Virginian)

Can you please blog on the poor quality of the commentators at the Big East Games? Its terrible. I’m not sure of the exact crew but the WVU vs Syracuse and WVU vs Marshall games on the Big East Network via SNY were terrible. They were inaccurate and boring. I clearly recall in the WVU – Cuse game that the play by play guy called a 5 yard WVU run a 1 yard loss. I swear the guys head is up his —. A change is needed. –Mike

Mike, I will indeed be watching this week’s Big East Game of the Week (USF at Pitt) from home and so I’ll keep closer attention to the announcers. Until then, though, and at the risk of sounding like I’m passing the buck, I believe it’s ESPN which produces these games and hires these announcers. SNY only gives the games a home, much as WTAP does in Parkersburg, W.V. Hopefully this week’s crews will be more to your liking. Here’s the slate:

Friday, 8 p.m. Rutgers at Army, ESPN2: Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore

Saturday, 12 p.m. Connecticut at West Virginia, ESPNU: Clay Matvick, David Diaz-Infante

Saturday, 12 p.m. South Florida at Pitt, SNY: Mike Gleason, John Congemi, Quint Kessenich*

Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Louisville at Cincinnati, ESPNU: Todd Harris, Charles Arbuckle

Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Akron at Syracuse, Time Warner-NY: Mark Lawson, Dale Drypolcher, Chris Watson

*Chris Freet at USF has put together a great channel guide for the Big East Games of the Week. This page will tell you what channel you can see that game (and ESPN Regional games) on if you’re not within SNY’s reach. Look at it, print it, bookmark it, just don’t lose it.

There I am, suddenly 6-9, interviewing Rutgers’ Greg Echenique. Wait till you see the video footage.

As promised this morning, some hoops stories. I couldn’t possibly get them all (or even half), but here’s a decent sampling.

Morgantown, New York City, both home. Who would’ve thunk? Nova’s the preseason no. 1, there aren’t 38 star seniors, but give the Big East time. Cream always rises. (SNY.tv)

John Marinatto has a sense of humor. Or maybe Mike Tranghese does. (NJ Newsroom)

Rick Pitino was obviously the draw of the day. Sex scandals tend to do that. (NY Daily News)

Pitino talked about thoroughbreds’ blinders and he promised no more distractions. Fat chance. (Providence Journal, USA Today, AOL Fanhouse)

Maybe to deflect some of that, maybe just to be honest, Pitino figured it was as good a time as any to knock Rutgers’ facilities. (Star-Ledger)

It wasn’t so much quality of the truly good teams yesterday as it was quantity of the truly good. (Journal Inquirer)

Jay Wright thinks his team is prettier than last year’s. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Jim Calhoun’s lost 500 pounds. In two players. (Hartford Courant)

There’s a shift in Big East power. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

… it’s probably not happening anytime soon. At least, that’s what Big East commissioner John Marinatto said.

The commish was loose and relaxed at men’s basketball media day yesterday, in no small part because he didn’t have to champion his league or justify its place at the cool kids’ (re: BCS) table. “Obviously,” he said, “basketball is an easy thing for us because the conference is so good top to bottom.”

Marinatto said the league’s members fully believe football will be able to say the same soon enough, and he said talk of dividing into a league for the football-playing schools and a basketball-only league has pretty much been tabled. “People within the conference are very supportive of what it’s evolved into,” he said.

For the rest of the interview, check out the video player to the right. It’s my first web video for SNY.tv, so please don’t be too harsh!

The Big East  folks were running out of media packets yesterday at the Garden. They’d put out over 200. That means there’s a slew of basketball clips and this round-up may not get up before it’s lunchtime. So… we’ll stick with the football here and I’ll put together a roundup of hoops stories later on in the day. If you have links you think should be shared, don’t be shy about sending them on… Joe Paterno explains marriage… Barely a fifth of athletic departments make money… Sam Adams is making a new beer, with a cork and 10 percent booze…Whatever your politics, insurance underwriting like this cannot go on…

Cincinnati’s made a banner: a picture of Jasper Howard, a Huskies-blue Bearcat paw and the words, “You’re one of our football family.” Every member of of the program has signed it and it’s being sent to Storrs. (The News Record)

Louisville beat Cincinnati 70-7. Just five years ago. The times they are a changin’. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Is an aristocracy ever permeable? (Sporting News)

How will Cincinnati shake out in college football’s second half? (ESPN.com)

Louisville’s prepping for three QBs. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Add BC’s DeLeon Gause: another player who’ll wear Jasper Howard’s no. 6 this weekend. (Norwich Bulletin)

UConn held a candlelit vigil for Howard last night. Donald Brown’s uncle wrote a letter to Huskies fans. There’s still a football game to ready for. One against a team that’s put 101 points on the Huskies in their last two meetings. (Hartford Courant)

The ends were supposed to be the studs, but Pitt’s tackles are doing the tackling. The Pitt-USF match-up. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Rutgers showed Stull can indeed be harassed. And now he has to face George Selvie. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Dion Lewis is giving Pitt shades of Shady McCoy. (Rivals.com)

The Scarlet Knights had eight busted plays against Pitt that busted because of what they did, not what Pitt did. (Star-Ledger)

Rutgers’ return games need serious improvement. (Home News Tribune)

BJ Daniels is looking to rebound, on the football field. (Tampa Tribune)

The Bulls now have a Snuggie. (St. Petersburg Times)

Doug Marrone’s shifting Syracuse’s offensive line. Big East watchers will see a familiar face on Akron’s sideline. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Even in West Virginia, they don’t like the BCS. Another day, another arrest. (Times West Virginian)

The previous day’s perp tweets an apology. (NBC Sports)

Should Bill Stewart be leading this WVU team? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

I just got back from men’s basketball media day* at Madison Square Garden. I couldn’t help but note how when it comes to football, the league almost has to be in a defensive posture, but then when it’s basketball time, the league can - and rightly so – totally strut. In any case, we talked a lot of basketball and over the next week, we’ll hopefully have a lot of video to share with you. But it IS football season. Which means football has to come up too.

South Florida senior guard Chris Howard said Bulls quarterback BJ Daniels – a reserve on the basketball team – definitely has game. “He’s just a great all-around athlete,” Howard said. “I just wish we could’ve won last week”

“We” being USF’s football team, which fell to no. 5 Cincinnati, which is the football team representing Deonta Vaughn’s school. Vaughn, another senior guard, said he’s been having fun with football’s success. Only, “Cincinnati is supposed to be a basketball school.” Hmmm…

The real meaty conversation, though, was with commissioner John Marinatto. We talked about the BCS and Cincinnati’s run and Jasper Howard’s murder, but the quick news now is that the Big East’s bowl line-up could fill out by the end of the week. Or by the end of December. Basically, Marinatto said, talks are constant.

As it stands now, the Big East has its BCS berth, the Champs Sports Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl and the Yankee Bowl set. The league would like two more set spots (a third is unreasonable – who’s going to want a seventh-pick Big East team?) and the ones the Big East has most recently been affiliated with - the Papajohns.com Bowl, the St. Petersburg Bowl and the International Bowl – are all still on the table as options.

Marinatto said the league has talked to other bowls, but is not necessarily “in talks” with other bowls. The first-year commissioner said the league is heavily evaluating the previous three mentioned, but that there’s genuinely no leader, or trailer, right now. He said the league weighs three factors: geography (how well the league’s schools are suited to go to a site), destination-ness (how desirable a locale is the bowl in) and quality opponent (a BCS foe is always better than non-BCS foe). Marinatto said there’s no ranking of the three factors, just that there are three.

I don’t quite know what my money’s on for those three. I would guess the Papajohns.com because they’re offering an SEC opponent and the St. Petersburg because the Big East started that bowl. Which might disappoint reader – and Toronto resident – Chris M. On the other hand, if the International Bowl suddenly finds a taker in the Big Ten, that could change everything. What do you think? What are the two best options to finish out the Big East bowl slate?

*I covered the women for a long time and hey, I’m a girl - of course I don’t think it’s fair to designate one basketball and the other a modified basketball.

Apologies in advance. This one’s going to have to be short – it’s Big East men’s basketball media day at the Garden and I have to hurry into the city… We’ll have a good Keep it Brief later today… StateofRutgers.com has invited me on for a chat this evening at 8 pm; swing by and bring your questions…

The BCS is weighing hiring a permanent face – and advocate – for their messy system. (AP)

Six Big East starting QBs have been knocked out of games this year. If Tony Pike can’t go, Steve Kragthorpe and Louisville might benefit, but the Cardinals coach doesn’t care: these guys need to be better protected. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Of course, Kragthorpe won’t really benefit. Brian Kelly wins with what he has. (Sporting News)

Pike, meanwhile, has some Spanish homework to keep busy with. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Thank you Neil Ostrout: a bunch of links. (Connecticut Post)

Scenes from UConn’s first practice back. (New Haven Register)

Jasper Howard came to UConn to make a better life. (AP)

Clemson’s Chris Chancellor will wear Howard’s no. 6 at Miami this weekend to honor his old friend. (Norwich Bulletin)

USF’s BJ Daniels will test Pitt. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Pitt’s Dion Lewis will test USF. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Daniels makes people run. He still says he hates running. (Tampa Tribune)

It might be time for Rutgers to try running again. 

Rutgers’ redshirt frosh DT Scott Vallone is fine with that. He just doesn’t want anyone else running on him. (Star-Ledger)

Rutgers will never have to be more disciplined than against Army. (Home News Tribune)

Greg Paulus was benched the last time Syracuse played. He’s ready for Akron. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

West Virginia QB Jarrett Brown may be fine for Saturday. DT Scooter Berry may not be fine again this year; he’s been suspended. (Times West Virginian)

That’s the tagline of a brand new political action committee, Playoff PAC. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) have long been bent on trading the BCS for a real playoff system and Monday, they together announced their backing of this PAC.

According to a Playoff PAC press release, the BCS is  ”inherently flawed. It crowns champions arbitrarily and stifles inter-conference competition.”

I totally agree, especially with that second part.

(more…)

This is what I call a great home radio station. Who’s making this a t-shirt? … William Cheswick invented internet security. He says sorry… Be careful if you  have a CitiMastercard. It may not work anymore… Big East officials could’ve cost some people some serious cash… 

There’s still no definites on Tony Pike’s availability. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Doesn’t matter if it’s Chazz Anderson or Zach Collaros; if Pike doesn’t go, Cincinnati still plays fast. (Rivals.com)

The other person stabbed up in Storrs was also a football player, a man is going to be arrested for a role in Jasper Howard’s slaying and that man’s lawyer says the fight featured non-students and a half-dozen football players. Geno Auriemma let his team take Sunday night off; Jasper Howard played pick-up with the national champs regularly. (Connecticut Post)

Kashif Moore held Jasper Howard in his arms. He and punter Desi Cullen organized a memorial last night at the UConn Student Center and emotions were raw. Pull out a tissue for this one. (Hartford Courant)

Former d-lineman and captain Dan Davis writes a rememberance of Howard. UConn resumes practice today. (Norwich Bulletin)

Safety Aaron Bagsby wonders about football players being targets. UConn and its students organizations have planned a slew of memorial events. UConn and Nike are trying to sew up more no. 6 t-shirts before Rutgers gets to town on Halloween. (Hartford Courant)

This murder affects college football, say the Michigan Wolverines. (AnnArbor.com)

Jasper Howard’s top five games. (Bleacher Report)

Rutgers’ Tim Brown and Antonio Lowery were good friends of Howard’s. (SNY.tv)

Jasper Howard had a huge play against Syracuse once. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Title or not, Adam Froman’s settling into being Louisville’s starting QB. Basketball players Terrence Jennings and Jerry Smith pled guilty to resisting arrest. They’ll do community service. (Lousville Courier-Journal)

South Florida does Go Green, Louisville does Blackouts and now Pitt will do Turn it Blue. Pitt was this good in 2006. The Panthers collpased. Dave Wannstedt says he doesn’t remember it. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Wannstedt’s QB, Bill Stull, is talking all about 2006. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Jabu Lovelace remembers a trip to Army well. Rutgers Stadium is bigger, more red and has all the bells and whistles. Too bad it doesn’t give any home field advantage. Tom Savage isn’t cutting his freshman self any slack. (Star-Ledger)

Safety Patrick Kivlehan could be back for Rutgers. (Home News Tribune)

Army beat writer Sal Interdonato thinks Army can knock off Rutgers. (Times Herald Record)

If South Florida doesn’t win at Pitt this weekend, call it a season ruined. For the third straight year. Of course, doing that will require stopping Dion Lewis. (St. Petersburg Times)

Knocked off the unbeaten ranks and knocked out of the polls, South Florida didn’t look either at Monday’s practice. (Tampa Tribune)

Syracuse is sticking with its new center. (Syracuse Post-Standard)

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart doesn’t know who’ll start at QB this weekend. Scott Kozlowski’s having fun punting. (Times West Virginian)

When will West Virginia play Penn State? (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)