Panthers never go away, still alive and well

Pitt is like the monster in a horror movie — just when you think it’s dead, it comes back to… Pitt is like the monster in a horror movie — just when you think it’s dead, it comes back to claim another victim.

Last week, that victim was Notre Dame.

But surely a win over Notre Dame meant nothing for Pitt, who already has two losses in the Big East, right?

It would have, if West Virginia hadn’t lost to Boston College and Syracuse hadn’t fallen apart against the pitiful Temple Owls this past weekend.

Now, because of these two critical losses by Syracuse and West Virginia, Pitt’s road to a Big East title is again manageable.

Believe it?

I don’t either, but the mathematicians have already taken out their calculators and crunched the numbers into the following two scenarios, both of which would give Pitt the Big East title:

In both situations, Pitt has to beat both West Virginia and South Florida.

In the first scenario, a four-team mini-conference will be created if Boston College defeats Temple and loses to Syracuse. Included this mini-conference would be West Virginia, Syracuse, Pitt and Boston College — all of whom would have a conference record of 4-2. In the mini-conference, Pitt and Syracuse would be tied for first, because each would have a 2-1 record against the other teams in this new conference.

A tie would be settled by BCS rankings, where the school with a higher ranking gets the nod. If that is a tie, it goes to a head-to-head matchup, which Syracuse would win. But in all likelihood, Pitt would have a higher ranking if this scenario played out.

The second scenario would create a three-team mini-conference, which would include West Virginia, Pitt and Boston College. This would happen if Boston College loses to Temple and defeats Syracuse.

The Panthers would hold the advantage here with a 2-0 record and would get the BCS bid if they are ranked higher than the other two teams or are at least within five spots of the next team. This means that if Pitt is No. 25 and West Virginia is No. 21, Pitt gets the bid. No matter what.

Confused yet?

I’ll dumb it down.

Basically, Pitt has to win out and Boston College needs to lose once for the Panthers to win the Big East, which is shocking, because if you asked me last week, I would have told you it was going take an act of Congress for Pitt to win the Big East.

Looks like the legislation is getting signed.

Boston College plays against Temple this weekend. The game is in Philadelphia and, on paper, it looks like it’s easy to assume that the Eagles will walk away with a victory. But that same thing could have been said last week about Syracuse, before they took on Temple and lost. So it is possible that Walter Washington, Temple’s quarterback, could run all over the Eagles after having sliced through the Orange.

If Boston College does not have a letdown this Saturday, they’ll have to hold strong against Syracuse the following week to win the Big East title. Right now, it is Boston College’s to lose.

On the other side of things, Pitt, as I have said, needs to win out. And considering the way quarterback Tyler Palko is playing, anything is possible. Game one is against West Virginia on Thanksgiving. Game two is a week later, on Dec. 4, against South Florida, which will be critical because of the fact that Pitt will need a higher BCS ranking to win.

Clearly, the West Virginia game will be a test for these Panthers, who have struggled to win big games over the last couple years. In big games, this team has choked — like Syracuse.

“If you’re going to be a championship football team, you need to win big football games,” Palko said after the Syracuse game.

Pitt has another chance to prove itself. The Panthers can quiet all those who don’t believe that they can win the Big East title.

And they can do it by winning a big game on Thanksgiving.

Jimmy Johnson is the sports editor of The Pitt News, and if his math is right, he, too, has a shot at winning the Big East. E-mail him at jimmysjargon@yahoo.com.