Franklin County Times

I will gladly tell anyone who asks me just how terrible the Big East Conference in college football is.

I have talked it over with my brother and a few friends of mine, and we simply cannot figure out why the Big East has a BCS bowl tie-in.

Lest we forget that the “best” team to come out of the conference last season was UConn, and Oklahoma put an easy shellacking on the Huskies.

The score wasn’t that bad, but the Sooners weren’t even trying.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night and the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl, and you had a match-up that I was less than excited about.

My exact words to my brother in a text message were “Clemson-West Virginia, ACC-Big East. Woo.”

That about sums it up for how much I cared about the best teams in the ACC and Big East playing each other.

I was not expecting West Virginia to embarrass Clemson the way they did, however, especially by a record-setting 70-33.

Mountaineer safety Darwin Cook set an Orange Bowl record for longest play when he returned a goal line fumble by the Tigers 99 yards to the opposite end zone for a touchdown.

West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith tied the record — for any bowl game — with six touchdown passes. His 401 passing yards surpassed an Orange Bowl record previously held by Tom Brady.

Mountaineer wide receiver Tavon Austin tied a record for any bowl game with four touchdown catches.

West Virginia set a record for any bowl by scoring 5 TDs in the second quarter.

Finally, West Virginia set a record for most points scored in a bowl game — held previously by Baylor for six days after the 2011 Alamo Bowl.

All told, the Mountaineers tied or broke nine records in the game.

This is great news for the Big East, because they can proudly say that West Virginia is in their conference.

Until they bail out and join the rebuilding Big 12, that is.

Can you imagine West Virginia playing TCU in the Big 12 in a few years’ time?

Yeah, I don’t care either.