DATE: Sunday, August 24, 1997               TAG: 9708240180

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

BIG EAST FOOTBALL IS NOT SO BIG ANY MORE THE BIG EAST HAS DECLINED BECAUSE OF MIAMI'S DOWNFALL AND LOWLY TEMPLE, PITT AND RUTGERS.

The Big East Football Conference burst onto the scene in 1991 when Miami finished atop the final Associated Press poll and Syracuse ended up No. 11. A league team played for the national championship each of the next three bowl seasons.

But Big East football has slipped. No Big East team has figured in the national title picture the last two seasons, and Virginia Tech, at No. 13, was the highest-ranked at the end of last season. The dropoff has led to carping by some that the Big East does not belong among the power conferences that make up the Bowl Alliance.

Preseason magazines rating conference strength invariably place the Big East sixth among the six Alliance conferences. Some even ranked the Western Athletic Conference - which has squawked about being left out of the alliance and its $8.5 million payouts per team - as stronger than the Big East.

Big East bashing has even come to The Chronicle of Higher Education, which wrote in a June 6 story: ``Several observers predict that unless its weaker teams improve, the stronger teams will defect, and the Big East, as a football conference, will collapse.''

Senior associate commissioner Tom McElroy contends people are over-reacting to a couple of down years, that the membership is solid entering today's Syracuse-Wisconsin matchup in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium (2 p.m., WVEC).

Syracuse is one of just two nationally ranked Big East teams at No. 17Wisconsin at No. 24 is one of six Big Ten teams in the poll. Every Alliance conference except the Big East has at least three ranked teams.

``I think some of this is cyclical,'' McElroy said. ``We know competitively we've not been as strong, when you talk about non-conference play and national rankings, as we were the first three years. No one has to tell us we haven't had a team in the 1-2 (Alliance) game.''

A larger problem than the Big East's recent failure to compete for the national title is the quagmire at the bottom of the league. Abysmal Temple, Rutgers and Pitt are dragging down the entire league.

Temple (1979) and Rutgers (1978) have not been to a bowl game since most of their current players were toddlers. Pitt, once an Eastern power, was surpassed by other schools in terms of facilities and product on the field.

``We really need for our people in the three to seven slots to get better,'' McElroy said. ``We need Boston College to rebuild, we need Pitt to be what it can be.''

Temple, meanwhile, maybe can never be good enough. The Owls are an eyesore, with a 1-27 record in Big East play since 1993. They typically draw about 5,000 to tomb-like Veterans Stadium, a number second-year athletic director Dave O'Brien has declared must climb to 10,000 this year and an unfathomable 25,000 within a couple of years. In four years under coach Ron Dickerson, the Owls are 5-39. He's in the last year of his contract.

The Big East recently established competitive criteria for all of its schools to meet in areas such as attendance, stadium access and financial commitment to the program.

Big East presidents aren't ready to show Temple the door yet, but the message is clear: rectify the football program's problems, or you're gone.

``It's a real serious concern for the membership and it's a concern at Temple,'' McElroy said. ``Their athletic director has dealt with it head-on. As the Big East is forced to compete, we're only as good as the sum of our parts.''

McElroy said the carping from WAC commissioner Karl Benson about the Big East not belonging in the Alliance was politically motivated, and that it incensed officials in many conference offices.

``You don't magnify someone's scars or make fun of the fact he wears glasses,'' McElroy said. ``Hey, we're in a down cycle. We don't sit here and talk about WAC basketball.''

McElroy said the Big East remains in good stead with the television networks and the bowls, who structure the deals. The league has a television contract with CBS and ESPN that runs through 2000. CBS and ESPN will carry a Big East game nearly every week this season. The league delivers major eastern television markets such as Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Pitt and Miami, while Virginia Tech (Washington) and Syracuse (New York) have a presence in major markets.

It also hasn't helped that Miami received a probation sentence in 1995 for a series of scandals, that BC had a gambling scandal last season and that Alliance bowl representative Virginia Tech has had a rash of problems off the field the past two years.

On the field, the talent level doesn't seem to measure up. Scan the preseason magazine All-American lists, and the names of precious few Big East players appear.

That despite a tremendous number of returning statistical leaders: The top three rushers and nine of the top 10 are back; the top two quarterbacks in terms of passing efficiency and five of the top eight; the top nine scoring leaders; six of the top 10 receivers; seven of the top 10 in total offense.

Still, conference favorites Miami and Syracuse are not projected as national title contenders. Look for that yapping from the WAC to continue at least another year.

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