So my Bearcats are now ranked in the BCS @ 23... another come from behind win... I am going to have a heart attack if this keeps up.
Regarding the BE losing their AQ.... I do have a lot of concern with this, with the leaving of WVU and Pitt, but saying the BE is/has been horrible is not fair IMO... The BE has had a winning (overall) bowl game record the last 4 years, with a record of 17-6 dating back to 2006 and they have won their BCS bowl games 6 of the last 10 years. (granted half of those were Miami, who defected). My bearcats probably put the worst credibility to the league with the disaster that was the 09 season Sugar Bowl, which i have discussed already.
However, if you include and look at season games I would argue the BE has shown it is competitive. ND lost to a struggling USF team, and though UC lost to Tenn, it was a very competitive game (and they beat ACC NCS who was looking good at the time). Loisville beat bottom SEC dwellers of UK, and held close with UNC. Rutgers also lost a very close game to UNC. Even bad UConn lost very very close games against the SEC and B12. In fact the BE team that did the worst out of conference is Pitt, who is leaving.
Their overall out of conference record this season is a poor 5-10 (5 of those losses to the teams leaving the conference):
against ACC: 3-2
against SEC: 1-3
against ND: 1-1
against P12: 0-2
against B12: 0-2
Looking at overall bodies of work since 2000 against:
ACC: 38-48 (15-16 all time in bowl games)
B1G: 11-19 (2-1 all time in bowl games)
Big 12: 14-9 (8-7) all time in bowl games)
SEC: 19-13 (8-7 all time in bowl games)
P12: 7-11 (2-5 all time in bowl games)
So, are they a dominate force in football? Not even close, but I would still say they are competitive. but that's just my opinion, and hoping and dreaming we dont lose our AQ...