12 Hours Later (Plus)..... Rutgers Football, The Big East, More Thanksgiving Leftovers, and Some Bowl Projections

This is part of my on going look at the 2009 Rutgers football season. Its much delayed (with a house full of people this weekend) but here's a look at the penultimate week of the Big East Season .

Its been a couple of days since the last Rutgers football game, a 20-14 win over Louisville, the final game of Cardinals coach Steve Kragethorpe's tenure. The details of the game are familiar now- Rutgers went out to a 28-7 lead, bogged down a bit in the second half, but came alive in the 4th quarter behind Mohamed Sanu's 148 yards and his second TD from the Wild Cat formation.

I could go through the rehash, but anyone who's been following this knows what's up, and if you don't check out this link to Brian Bennett's Big East Blog on ESPN.com .

All that's left now is placement in the bowl picture with the last three games in the Big East football season coming up this weekend.

Pitt (9-2 5-1 Big East), who were upset at West Virginia on Friday 19-16, will meet Cincinnati (11-0, 6-0 Big East) for what is in essence the Big East Championship game on Saturday at 12:00noon. At the same time West Virginia (8-3, 4-2 Big East) goes to Piscataway to meet Rutgers (8-3, 3-3 Big East).

And in East Hartford (6-5, 2-4 Big East) host the flailing South Florida Bulls (7-4, 3-3 Big East) in a night contest.

There are six teams that are bowl eligible, and six bowl tie ins for the Big East.

Here's a scenario or two- Cincinnati beats Pitt, West Virginia beats Rutgers, and UCONN- USF a tossup. Cincinnati would go to the Sugar Bowl, West Virginia (tie breaker on Pitt) goes to the Gator, Pitt goes to the Meineke, Rutgers to St.Petersburg, South Florida to The International, UCONN to Papa John's.

If Pitt wins, and West Virginia wins, Pitt goes to the Sugar and Cincinnati to the Gator, WVU to the Meineke (again), the other three remain the same.

If Pitt wins and Rutgers wins, Pitt to Sugar, Cincy to Gator, RU (tie breaker on WVU) to Meineke, WVU to Papa John's, USF and UCONN to International and Papa John's , respectively.

If Cincy wins and Rutgers wins, its Cincy to Sugar, Pitt to Gator and all else would be the same as above.

Then again...I could be wrong.

This and that- Al Groh is out at Virginia, expect Temple's Al Golden to get that call. Charlie Weis is probably boxing his stuff at South Bend. I wonder how much of a distraction the Notre Dame rumors will be for Brian Kelly and Cincinnati as they prepare for the biggest game of the Big East year, though it is slightly tarnished by Pitt's loss to West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl.

And what about RU product Kenny Britt's game winning TD catch for the Titan's today in Tennessee's 20-17 win over Arizona with 00:00 on the clock? Way to go KB!