clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Was Pitt's Blowout Loss To Utah In Fiesta Bowl Worst BCS Moment In Conference History?

Last week, ESPN's Andrea Adelson put together a short list of Big East candidates who had the worst moments in BCS football games. Somehow, Pitt's 35-7 blowout loss to Utah in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl was left out of the discussion.

↵

That, of course, drew plenty of reaction from fans.

↵

Adelson's contention for selecting UConn's 48-20 loss to Oklahoma as the worst moment for the Big East seems to be that the Huskies were the only unranked squad to reach a BCS game. But when you factor that in, doesn't it make their 24-point loss a bit easier to swallow than the Panthers' 28-point defeat?

↵

The Panthers ended up being the beneficiary of a tiebreaker scenario and went on to face an undefeated Utah Utes squad. Pitt was facing, no doubt, an unbelievable team in Utah. Still, the Panthers were essentially blown out of the gate, falling behind 28-0, and were never in the game. The Huskies, on the other hand, at least kept things close for a bit, trailing only 20-10 into the third quarter.

↵

I understand Adelson's point about an unranked team reaching the BCS as being an embarrassing moment, but Pitt's blowout to Utah was too ugly to ignore.

↵

For more on Pitt football, check out SB Nation's Pitt blog, Cardiac Hill.

↵

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.