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In a college football season that saw upset after upset, it was only fitting that one of the biggest took place on the season's final weekend. Even though they were a four-touchdown favorite to end the season as the outright Big East champion, then-No. 2 West Virginia lost to Pittsburgh, 13-9, dropping the Mountaineers into a tie atop the standings. As a result, UConn was named co-champions of the conference.
"This is another great landmark to achieve in only our fourth year in the Big East," said head coach Randy Edsall in a press release. "It is something that nobody thought could have happened four years ago or even at the start of this season."
Entering the season UConn was a consensus pick to finish second-to-last in the conference, while West Virginia was picked to win the title. UConn proved critics wrong this year, only their fourth since joining the Big East.
Heading into the final weekend of the college football regular season, West Virginia took the field in Morgantown having already captured the BCS birth representing the Big East after dismantling UConn the week before. All they had to do was beat Pittsburgh to get a birth to play for the national championship game, but the Panthers scrapped their way to a 13-9 win and squashed all those dreams.
UConn (9-3, 5-2 Big East) accepted their first bowl bid since the 2004 Motor City Bowl last week, taking a bid for the Meineke Car Care Bowl on Dec. 29.
The Huskies also received their first-ever national ranking of the year and they reached as high as No. 13 in the BCS standings.
"To have it happen in year four in the league is a great compliment to the hard work of our student-athletes, assistant coaches and staff," Edsall said. "It has been a season of milestones for us with our first national ranking, first undefeated home record, first win over a ranked team, the winningest regular season in school history and a bid to a great bowl game in Charlotte."
Since 1993, the first year of a full round-robin conference schedules, seven teams have won or shared the Big East title. The Huskies are the fifth current Big East school to win at least a share of the conference title.
West Virginia (1993, 2003, 2005, 2007), Syracuse (1996, 1997, 1998) Pittsburgh (2004) and Louisville (2006) are the other four conference members to own a championship. Cincinnati and South Florida, who joined the league in 2005, have never won a title, nor has charter member Rutgers.
Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech, who dominated the league throughout most of the 1990s, won a combined 12 conference championships before leaving for the ACC in 2004.
Contact Patrick Parker at
Patrick.Parker@UConn.edu.
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