This year's Big East has the potential to be a bloodbath -- just not the kind that the old Big East guard, the Jim Boeheims and John Thompsons of the world, so fondly and frequently remember.
The new-look league's carnage is more likely to play out in the standings. The Big East has seven teams ranked in the RPI's top 50. While they range from third (Villanova) all the way to 49th (Providence), seemingly every team in that group has the pieces to be a threat to everyone else. It's hard to imagine any of these teams surviving the rest of the regular season without taking a couple of lumps.