Steele's toughest schedules

Who's got the toughest schedule in the Big East? It's Pittsburgh, according to pundit Phil Steele.

The popular preseason magazine author has released his list of toughest schedules in the nation, and Pitt checks in at No. 28, tops among Big East teams. That's no surprise since the Panthers play at Utah and Notre Dame and welcome Miami to Heinz Field this season.

Steele takes into account how opponents fare in his preseason power rankings and how many home and away games a team plays. Here's where the other league schools rank in his poll:

39. Syracuse

49. South Florida

59. Cincinnati

63. Connecticut

66. Louisville

70. West Virginia

81. Rutgers

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast

swg said:

The popular preseason magazine author has released his list of toughest schedules in the nation, and Pitt checks in at No. 28, tops among Big East teams. That's no surprise since the Panthers play at Utah and Notre Dame and welcome Miami to Heinz Field this season.

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And they have to play us!!

Not to knit-pick, but Steele has Syracuse as having a tougher schedule than us. They play the same conference schedule and have a less than stellar OOC schedule (including two FCS schools).

I'm glad the WV and Pitt games aren't back to back. UConn is tough, but they aren't those two teams.