ESPN Big East Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Twelve weeks into the season, we have a first-timer in first place.

1. Cincinnati (7-2, 3-1): You go into Morgantown and knock off the previous week's No. 1 team, and you get to rise to the top for at least one week. Plus, Cincinnati has Pittsburgh at Nippert Stadium in two weeks in what could become the league's championship game.

2. Pittsburgh (7-2, 3-1): The Bearcats scored the biggest win of the week, but Pitt looked awfully impressive in dismantling Louisville at home. The Panthers get a week off before going through the tough final gauntlet of Cincinnati-West Virginia-Connecticut.

3. West Virginia (6-3, 3-1): All the Mountaineers have to do is win out and have Cincinnati lose once, and they'll be league champs again. Instead of worrying about that, though, they need to fix some areas during their bye week, starting with kickoff coverage.

4. Connecticut (6-3, 2-2): We're not sure who will be UConn's quarterback this week -- Cody Endres? Zach Frazer? Tyler Lorenzen? -- and Randy Edsall probably won't tell us. Subterfuge will not be needed at Syracuse.

5. Rutgers (4-5, 3-2): It's still not out of the realm of possibility that the Scarlet Knights could tie for first in the Big East. They could conceivably be slight favorites this week at South Florida. I bring these up just to point out the absurdity of Rutgers' turnaround.

6. South Florida (6-3, 1-3): A columnist for The Sporting News named Jim Leavitt as one of his dark horse candidates to be fired this year. I'm not buying that at all. But the Bulls had better come out with a good effort at home after their bye week, or fan interest will fall off a cliff.

7. Louisville (5-4, 1-3): Remember when Louisville was picked to finish seventh in the preseason coaches' poll? Seems about right these days.

8. Syracuse (2-7, 1-4): Nothing left to play for except pride and the senior class this week in the Orange's final home game. Will UConn fans take over the Carrier Dome?