West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez has a rare opportunity Saturday. His team doesn’t play and instead will get a look at its next two opponents. No. 16 Connecticut (8-1, 4-0 Big East) plays at Cincinnati (7-2, 2-2) at 3:30 Saturday afternoon on ESPNU.

It’s a swing game in the battle for the Big East title. If the Bearcats have any chance to win it, they must first beat UConn, then WVU Nov. 17. UConn, meanwhile, could move one step closer to the title and one step closer to a possible game for the outright championship and the Bowl Championship Series bid in Morgantown Nov. 24.

This is a key contest and Rodriguez will be watching.

“I’ll watch a little bit as a fan and a lot as a coach. I’ll pay more attention obviously to Cincinnati  and when we get film on them later it’ll be easier to break it down. You don’t get as good a feel for the game watching it that way, but you can get a feel for a few things they’re doing. We already have some film on them and we can get a head start on that. It’s on ESPNU, so I’m sure the players will try to get somewhere and maybe get a look at it.”