IT HAS been three years since Charleston sports section readers have had a reason to care about Big East football, or anything connected to it.
For West Virginia fans, it was Dec. 29, 2012 when the new Big 12 member Mountaineers were sent to the Pinstripe Bowl to take on Syracuse. Marshall's last brush came a month earlier, Nov. 23 at East Carolina.
(Four days later, the Pirates accepted a football-only invitation to join the Big East.)
The state's teams lost both games in painful fashion. The Thundering Herd will attempt to fare better Saturday when it takes on Connecticut in the St. Petersburg Bowl. Kickoff is 11 a.m. at Tropicana Field.
Of course, UConn is not in the Big East as we knew it. The Huskies reside in the American Athletic Conference, the legal successor to the Big East. As the old Big East accumulated football members, the seven basketball-only Catholic schools bolted, taking the name with them.
The rebranded league began life in 2013 with four holdovers - Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple and UConn - and an army of Conference USA defectors.
UConn started conference play in 2004; UC and USF came from Conference USA in 2005 and Temple re-entered in 2012 after a seven-year exile. You could call the Huskies the longest-tenured AAC program, right?
So just how has the AAC fared? Check the rankings, where three teams reside in the Associated Press Top 25: League champion Houston 14th, Navy 21st and Temple - the team once tossed out of the Big East - 24th.
And commissioner Michael Aresco is lodging a mild protest about it.
"I still think our teams aren't ranked high enough, based on what they've done," he said last week. "I thought Houston should have been higher. A lot of eyes opened when Houston beat Vanderbilt 34-0. That's a Vanderbilt team with a very good defense.
"They beat Louisville at Louisville, and Louisville became a very good team. The loss at UConn was sort of a 'trap game,' they were coming off an emotional win against Memphis where they came from behind. They had Navy coming up for all the marbles [division title], and they didn't have their quarterback.
"You look at the other teams, and Memphis isn't in any of the top 25s, but they could easily have. And I thought they should have."
Houston and Memphis are two of nine former Conference USA members, seven of them Marshall rivals from C-USA's 2005-12 lineup. Herd fans could only watch as the Big East/AAC siphoned off Houston, Memphis, Tulsa, Tulane, Southern Methodist, ECU and Central Florida.
The league enjoyed one year in the old Bowl Championship Series, where UCF downed sixth-ranked Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. But the joy faded, as the league was farmed out to the "Group of 5" in the new College Football Playoff structure.
The American joined outcasts C-USA, the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt in creating bowl games as a survival mechanism. That's what brought about the Boca Raton, Miami Beach and Bahamas Bowls, and the 36th, 37th and 38th entries in the lineup.
The 2014 season was feast-and-famine, as the league had strong co-champs in Memphis, UCF and Cincinnati but double-digit-loss teams in Tulsa, UConn and SMU. The league was 4-22 against "Power 5" teams, and some computer rankings placed it below poor ol' Conference USA.
That's not the case in 2015, with three ranked teams and eight of 12 heading to bowls. The most shocking stat: Five teams registered four-win improvements over 2014 - Temple, USF, Houston, Tulsa and Herd bowl foe UConn.
And the addition of Navy has exceeded expectations, as the Midshipmen are 10-2 with losses to Houston and Notre Dame.
"I'm pleasantly surprised that we've done this well, but I thought we'd do well," Aresco said last week. "I thought we had a good shot to be the New Year's Day team in most years - right now, two of the last three years we've been; obviously we had an automatic [BCS berth] two years ago. On the other hand, we would have been there anyway under the Group of 5.
"I'm pleased with our progress; now we have to show we can sustain it."
Coaching has been the most critical factor. Justin Fuente performed a miracle in Memphis, and is replacing Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech because of it. Houston is doubling Tom Herman's salary, and Matt Rhule recently signed a six-year deal to stay at Temple.
Bob Diaco seems to be ahead of schedule in turning around UConn.
"The prototype there would be Cincinnati," Aresco said. "With Mark Dantonio, then Brian Kelly, then Butch Jones and Tommy Tuberville. You hired a string of good coaches."
In the facilities race, American teams have rocked the G-5 world. Of the current American schools, I personally worked in six stadiums that were either replaced or radically renovated since 2005.
"Nippert Stadium [Cincinnati], it's essentially a brand-new stadium," Aresco said. "A new stadium in Tulane ... brand-new stadium in Houston, beautiful 40,000-seat stadium, the right size. You look at Temple, they're talking about building a stadium in Philadelphia, USF is talking about a new stadium on campus.
"I'm telling you, I look around and this is a committed group."
Before this season, Aresco was almost brash at the AAC media day, saying the time would come when the league would turn the Power 5 conferences into the "Power 6." This fall, the American is 8-12 against big-conference schools, with four more games on tap.
And the American pillaged other G-5 conferences, going 10-1. (Hat tip to winless UCF, 15-14 losers to Florida International).
Let's get this straight: Marshall had no chance to join this outfit in the recent round of realignment, especially with the on- and off-field inertia of the late 2000s. Today, even after $40 million in facility improvements, it's still a pipe dream.
But the Herd gets its first-ever chance in football against the AAC when it takes on UConn, and must take advantage.