ESPN.com's Brian Bennett has the scoop on the computer rankings used to help determine who plays in the Big East Championship. Frankly, I don't put too much stock into these things, but it was interesting to see where Pitt (as well as the Big East) rated in the big scheme of things.
There are six computers that account for a portion of the BCS formula. Taking the average of those six computers, Pitt rates 58th in the country. Here's how the entire conference rates:
WVU - 29th
Cincinnati - 57th
Pitt - 58th
Rutgers - 69th
UCONN - 76th
Syracuse - 78th
Louisville - 87th
South Florida - 96th
Other than flip-flopping Pitt and Cincinnati, this is the exact order of my power rankings of the conference this week.
This isn't all that surprising, really. The Big East has no top 25 teams, but WVU isn't that far away. But the interesting thing is that Pitt only rates second in strength of schedule in that same average behind Cincinnati. Let's take a look at the two schedules:
Cincinnati - Oklahoma, @ NC State, Miami (OH), @ Fresno State, @ Louisville, and Indiana State
Pitt - @ Utah, Miami, @ Notre Dame, @ Syracuse, New Hampshire, FIU
I'm no genius (just ask my wife), but, really? Cincinnati's schedule was more difficult than Pitt? They had one challenging game and that was at home.
Someone needs to explain this to me.