BIG EAST FOOTBALL Pitt gets one last crack at 'Canes before they leave

The game is rife with bowl ramifications.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Almost since the day Miami joined the Big East Conference before the 1992 season, there's been the Hurricanes and then there's been everybody else.
Virginia Tech and West Virginia flirted with national title runs. Pittsburgh rebuilt a beaten-down program into one that regularly sits in the Top 25. Syracuse and Boston College have enjoyed their moments, too.
But no one has remotely rivaled the Hurricanes' sustained brilliance over the last 11 seasons, a period that's seen them win two national titles, challenge for a handful more and churn out stars by the score: Ray Lewis, Warren Sapp, Willis McGahee, Edgerrin James, Kellen Winslow Jr., Santana Moss.
Now, unless No. 20 Pittsburgh (8-3, 5-1) elevates its play significantly and beats Miami (9-2, 5-1) in the Panthers' biggest game in 20-plus years today, this version of the Big East will end just like it started.
With Miami on top, and everybody else chasing it.
Bowl ramifications
Despite consecutive losses to Virginia Tech and Tennessee and the unforeseen frailty of their inconsistent offense, the Hurricanes will lock up an eighth and final Big East title and a BCS bowl bid by beating Pitt.
Officially, Miami would only share the title if West Virginia (7-4, 5-1) beats Temple (1-10, 0-6). But the Hurricanes would go to the big bowl -- most likely the Orange -- before heading off to the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Mountaineers would settle for the Gator.
But then isn't it always the Hurricanes who take the biggest step in the Big East, collect the biggest prize, achieve the greatest success?
"And these [21 Miami] seniors have played in every big bowl but the Orange," coach Larry Coker said.
Asked what Miami has done for the Big East, Pitt coach Walt Harris' answer was probably no different than most conference coaches would offer: "They've beaten us."
No kidding. Pitt has lost nine of 10 to the Hurricanes in the Big East and hasn't beaten them since 1997. Miami has outscored Pitt 177-62 over the last five seasons, with the only close game being last year's 28-21 victory in Miami.
No wonder the sold-out game at Heinz Field is easily Pitt's biggest since a mid-November 1982 loss to Notre Dame knocked the Panthers out of the No. 1 national ranking.
What's in it for Pitt
Win, and Pitt will at least share its first Big East title and play in a major New Year's bowl game for the first time since losing to SMU in the Cotton Bowl during that 1982 season.
Win, and Pitt will stamp itself as the program to beat in a new-look Big East that is about to lose Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC and add Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida.
"It's hard not to get too excited," Pitt safety Corey Humphries said.
Miami's final Big East game will also be Panthers quarterback Rod Rutherford's last in Pittsburgh -- and the last for Pitt star receiver Larry Fitzgerald to make a Heisman Trophy push. Fitzgerald will be going against a No. 2-ranked Miami secondary that hasn't allowed a receiver to make 100 yards in catches since the first game of the 2001 season.