Trap games abound in the Big East

By Colin Dunlap | 12:38 a.m. Friday

Sometimes, as a beat writer, you need to take a step back and make sure you aren't living life in a vacuum. It gets tough, but when covering a team, you have remind yourself on occasion that there are stories on the periphery and, quite honestly, there is more to the college football world than just what is going on with the team you cover.

For Friday's paper, I tried to do as much, escaping from a story that was solely indigenous to West Virginia, and writing one that had a broader subject.  

In looking at the schedule this week, it was glaringly clear the top three teams in the conference standings -- Cincinnati, Pitt and West Virginia -- play games some would refer to as "trap games."

It just seemed like a decent storyline, so here you go ....

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Posted Nov 06 2009, 12:37 AM by Colin Dunlap
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Comments

Sam Shep wrote re: Trap games abound in the Big East
on Fri, Nov 6 2009 8:39 AM

Don't you have to have a chance to actually win something to be considered playing a trap game?  I can understand the premise for Cincy and Pitt, but WVU???  Maybe a must-win game, but certainly not a trap game.  

Colin Dunlap wrote re: Trap games abound in the Big East
on Fri, Nov 6 2009 10:24 AM

Well, West Virginia had won two Big East games and had been ranked the past two weeks before the loss at USF -- isn't that something?

The Mountaineers also are in third place in a league in which the top two teams still have yet to play, head to head, which would guarantee one of them a loss.

Lastly, with a very big game next week awaiting against Cincinnati, West Virginia plays a winless (in the conference) Louisville team tomorrow.

For those reasons, as a journalist, I feel comfortable classifying  the Louisville game as a "trap game" under the widespread, accepted definition.