The Big East included me in its annual poll of conference media to put together a preseason media poll — I have no idea if that’s exclusive or not and I’m not the who who makes a big deal of these things. The point is to say that poll … that poll wasn’t easy. No team is going to get all the first-place votes and I can definitely see three teams getting one. I’d understand if four came away with one and I don’t think I’d be outraged if it ended up being five.

And so I sort of struggled putting it in order — and I’m way too competitive to take this lightly. I’m the guy who’ll read the poll and go, “Oh, that’s just great. I only have three of the eight teams in the right spot” before I hit the treadmill.

Anyhow, I can’t divulge my ballot. Well, maybe I can. I doubt the Big East cares. I’m not doing it, though, because I will instead invite you to rank Nos. 1-8 and throw in some brief justifications. I’ll mix my in my ballot Aug. 2 when I reveal the the blog’s poll, just as we did in the past.