At one point this season, these two teams were a combined 3-11. Now they are a combined two games over .500, and playing the Papajohns.com Bowl—not the Papa John's Bowl; Papa John's dot com. Sure, it's on national television, but it started at 3:00 p.m. ET on a Monday afternoon. Today is not a holiday. Most of the Western world is either at work or on vacation, and if they're on vacation, they sure as hell better not be watching TV. I can't imagine either of these teams wants to be there or is happy about the way their season turned out. Their respective athletic departments will be lucky to break even on this one and no one, anywhere, wants to travel to Birmingham between Christmas and New Year's (or ever.) In other words, this is the horrible bowl game that gives horrible bowl games a bad name. No good will come of this.

On the other hand, ordering a hot, delicious pizza from the internet so that it can be delivered to your door without any human interaction is one of the greatest pleasures this life has to offer. Extra garlic butter, please!

PapaJohns.com Bowl Notebook [Birmingham News]
N.C. State-Rutgers Preview [ESPN]
Missouri, Northwestern get set for Alamo Bowl [Houston Chronicle]

Speculation on background of Rutgers flipping-the-bird kid:

• Major: Animal husbandry.

• First time ever giving the finger in public.

• Girlfriend: No.

• Favorite weekend activity: Driving the mini race cars at the Fairway Golf Center.

• Parents' names: Brock and Tina.

• Grew up in: Franklin Lakes, or possibly Upper Saddle River.

• At least one Harry Potter poster in dorm room: Yes.

You've gotta hand it to Butch Davis. North Carolina hadn't won a game outside of the state since 2002, so scheduling Rutgers — led by a known quantity in his former Miami assistant, Greg Schiano — was a nice way to get back into the win column. T.J. Yates had a banner evening, throwing for three touchdowns in the 44-12 stomping. Player to watch: UNC's Brandon Tate, who caught a 69-yard TD pass and also scored on a 12-yard end around.

North Carolina Shames Rutgers On National TV [NBCSports]
Rutgers Student Gives ESPN The Middle Finger During North Carolina Game [Larry Brown Sports]

Well, they've come up with an ingenious idea: Come see some punts! Yep, that's Ball State punter Chris Miller. He's an excellent punter, and the Cardinals would just love to have you tune in to witness his handiwork. We are titillated.

International Bowl Marketing 101: Sell The Special Teams, Sell The Tickets [The Angry T]

Under the gaze of dozens of prison guards, Samson Sor Siriporn, a convicted drug dealer, battled through the unforgiving Thai heat to score a unanimous victory on points and kick-start parole proceedings for her early release. "I've been in jail for a long time now, I hope this will see me released early," said Siriporn, flanked by guards and surrounded by photographers. "When I'm free I'll carry on fighting. I want to fight all over the world."

Fighting in a makeshift ring in the grounds of the infamous Klong Prem prison with the Thai crowd chanting "fight, fight," Siriporn was on the attack from the start and repeatedly forced Miyano on to the ropes with a barrage of punches. Siriporn's sparring partners also watched the fight, while transvestites in high heels and skimpy outfits were allowed out of their cells to parade around the ring with placards at the beginning of each round.

Honestly, this was a logical direction boxing was going anyway. Whether you'd rather watch this or watch the women's NCAA title game might say something about you. Not good, not bad ... just something.

Thai Woman Boxer Wins Title Behind Bars [ESPN]
Women's Hoops Blog

As for that Ohio State-Michigan business, the Game To End All Games on Saturday was entertaining enough but didn't quite enter the land of Epic like many had hoped. That could be fine, considering there's still a chance the same two teams could play again in a month and a half. (We wouldn't mind this, actually; it's more inspiring than another USC appearance). The atmosphere in Columbus, as pointed out by an admittedly bitter The M Zone, involved just as much couch burning and "rioting" as the Texas game earlier this year, but this time, nobody seemed to mind. Maybe it was the rather outstanding gesture from the Dead Schembechlers, who are officially the classiest football punk rockers in recorded history.

Knights Need To Bulk Up [Newark Star-Ledger]
When Is A Riot Not A Riot [The M Zone]

It still looks like we might have the uninspiring matchup of the Ohio State-Michigan loser facing a clearly not-their-best-team USC, though there's still hope. USC has a tough game with California this weekend, and then faces Notre Dame. If they win both those, they're almost certainly in. But: Let's head to the land of the fanciful. If USC loses this weekend, and then beats Notre Dame, and Florida loses in the SEC championship game — certainly possible — and Rutgers wins out (hardly a certainty) ... could we THEN have Rutgers in the title game? Or would they put Arkansas or somebody else in there?

Since the rest of the college football week is pretty much going to be devoted to Michigan, Ohio State and the Dead Schembechlers, we figured we should toss this out there before we forgot.

BCS Rankings [CBS Sportsline]

AJ Daulerio's Cultural Oddsmaker runs every Friday. Email him to let him know what you think.

Everybody who grew up on the outskirts of Jersey had the same kind of reaction early this morning: "How about Rutgers? (chortle)" Yes, that Rutgers, who most Pa/New Yorkers will now claim some allegiance to because they have an uncle/cousin who attended. If not, they've at least stopped off at the New Brunswick turnpike exit on the way to Manhattan or Philly to find a gas station. Close enough. Go Scarlet Knights!

Schools like Rutgers appreciate the spotlight a little more. There's a swagger in Piscataway this morning, one that Jersey football hasn't had since Hershel Walker signed with the Generals. And as is common with most college campuses after a huge victory, much celebrating was to be had last night, as armies of Rutgers faithful decked themselves out in their cleanest Co-Ed Naked Volleyball shirts and broke out the microbrews for a good ol' fashioned Jersey bender.

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries of last night's victory are the players, who will be forever deified on campus as part of the team that changed the character of the university. And with that newfound popularity brings more responsibility, bigger opportunities in life and more ... ass.

So, this week, I'm wearing my L.J. Smith jersey, taking a big swig of Raritan cocktail and calculating the odds on which Scarlett Knights got the most beav last night.

Let's go plowing, after the jump.

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Ray Rice: Even

Rice's player of the game status should technically bode well for baskets full of trim at the end of the victory. But it's apparent that Rice is a family man who loves his mother, so he's probably gonna keep things legit and take up with his longtime girlfriend from New Rochelle. After a celebratory meal at the Applebee's, of course. There's nothing like post-euphoric victory humping with a belly full of potato skins.
Most likely had sex with: His baby's momma

Jeremy Ito: 1/4

Nobody's benefited more from the emo rocker, sensitive male revolution than the placekickers. They've shaken off the crippling Yepremianism of years past and have worked their way up on the sexually appealing scale just underneath dime package defensive backs and long snappers. However, game-winning kicks cause their stock to spike, and Ito was absolutely swimming in opportunities to have, at the very minimum, a threesome last evening. But, they're also very superstitious and stick to routines, so unless he was tanked, he most likely postponed the "strange" until after the season.
Most likely had sex with: Kind of hot physical therapy major interning as team trainer.

Redshirt Offensive Lineman Dave McClain: 1/3

Offensive lineman usually aren't picky about who they bang and are usually the players that churn through the most groupie-ish girls on campus just because, well ... they can. And redshirts are no different, other than, unlike the rest of their teammates, they don't have to beat the crap out of themselves this season. That's where somebody like McClain comes in, who can rock the Nu Metal bass player/bouncer look to vaginal victory.

Most likely had sex with: Red head chick from South Amboy visiting her high school friends.

Brian Leonard, 1/6:

Even though he's been Rutgers' standout player for the last few years, Leonard's role has diminished to more of a father figure, old sage-type that's willing to share the spotlight on behalf of his teammates. Still, he can pull serious top tier ladies when he wants to, and last night's victory was the perfect opportunity for him to cash in on the groundwork he's laid for five years. But, like Ito, he'll smartly hold out for BCS-caliber tail. Regular good friend/fuck buddy is sufficient for now.
Most likely had sex with: Rutgers Sophomore G Heather Zurich

The Scarlet Knight, 1/8:

His suit of armor was never more magnetic than it was last evening, as wearing this thing anywhere on campus could pretty much seal any deal. However, it's extremely tough to keep putting on those plastic pants and codpiece. So, first come, first serve last night.
Most likely had sex with: Four gals from the pep band

As we continue to sift through the empty cans next to the Vince Lombardi Memorial Rest Stop off the New Jersey Turnpike, we again salute the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for their historic and jaw-dropping 28-25 win over Louisville last evening. The video above — amazingly, posted within two hours after the game — shows the stands-eye view of both kicks from Jeremy Ito, the latter of which secured the win.

All kinds of views around the Web today, from Dan Shanoff's somewhat overcaffinated version and longtime suffering Rutgers fan Peter Schrager attempts to understand a world where the Scarlet Knights aren't a joke.

We don't know what this means for the BCS, or Big East football, or any of that, and we don't think it matters just yet. We should all probably just enjoy this. Though if we wanted to, we could probably insult some Rutgers fans right now; we doubt any of them will be up until about noon tomorrow.

Rutgers Finally On College Football Map [Fox Sports]
Rrrrruuuuttttggggeeeerrrrssss! [Dan Shanoff]

Every school, theoretically speaking, should have that moment when everything is perfect and right, one of those nights where all students begin a four-day orgy of drinking, unbridled celebration and Italian sandwiches. Tonight is that night for Rutgers, which is now one of the four undefeated teams in college football and, if they can keep winning, could have a legitimate claim at playing in the national championship game. Rutgers. Yep.

They're going crazy at Marita's Cantina right now, that's for damned sure.

Rutgers 28, Louisville 25 [Yahoo Sports]

If Louisville — 6 1/2-point favorites, if you're into that type of thing — wins tonight, it has only a road trip to Pittsburgh standing in the way of an undefeated season and probably a wildly unlikely berth in the BCS "Championship" Game. Rutgers, however, could win this game, win the rest of their games, win a major BCS conference, go undefeated ... and still not make it to the BCS title game. Which is insane and drives us up the wall.

But long way to go before we get to that point. Until the Ohio State-Michigan mayhem in just more than a week, this is as important a college football game as you'll see, and they're going to be rather bonkers in New Jersey this evening. So, as always, we encourage any of you sitting at home drinking and watching this endeavor to call out your Soprano sightings and random Lee Corso merkin screams in the comments section. Make friends, pop the cork, kick back your feet and watch out for random MMP videos. And enjoy.

Murphy's Law [SI.com]

If you are a college football team with Illinois on your schedule, we think it's probably pretty safe to rest your injured that week. After watching their 33-0 loss to Rutgers on Saturday, we can't imagine a team possibly playing worse; the Illini never crossed midfield. And it's bad enough that they didn't cross midfield, but this is a terrible team whose worst player is, in fact, its punter. He's a freshman who seems scared by the process of kicking a football into the air, which is an issue when you are a punter. Eventually, the Illini brought in a backup wide receiver to punt; he kicked a line-drive that so confused the Scarlet Knights that Illinois actually recovered it off the back of an opponent's leg. (They went three and out afterwards, of course.)

It was our first college football game in person in almost nine years. We, uh, are obviously in no hurry to come back. I - L - L !!!!

Wipeout! [Decatur Herald & Review]

(Thanks to everyone for their advice on how to find the stadium on Saturday. Though we wish we hadn't have listened. By the way, why does Rutgers have people dressed up like Revolutionary War soldiers setting off a cannon. We're sure there's an obvious Scarlet Knight-colonial connection, but it wasn't immediately apparent at the time.)

(UPDATE: Oh, so this is it: "Alexander Hamilton fought a delaying battle using cannon at a river crossing in New Brunswick from ground that would become the Rutgers main campus (Rutgers was founded ten years earlier as Queens College in 1766. Hamilton and Henry Rutgers, for whom Queens College was renamed, were both artillery men and graduates of Kings College.. which is Columbia.)" ALL RIGHT THEN.)

• 1. We've Got Scarlet Knight Fever. Which member of the Big East Conference was established first? Pencils down; the answer of course is Rutgers, which opened its doors in 1766 as Queen's College, a Dutch Reformed Church-affiliated institution. You knew that? OK, then how about this: Rutgers is one of only two schools to have turned down an invitation to join the Ivy League. How much juice does Rutgers have in New Jersey? We'd say Tony Soprano-type juice. The university recently strong-armed the town of Piscataway into changing zoning laws to let coach Greg Schiano build a home. By the way, Rutgers is also the home of the one college football game we're likely to see in person this year: September 9, Illinois at Rutgers.

• 2. Sweet Home Alabama. Chances of landing a bowl bid in the eight-team conference just improved dramatically, as the Big East announced its affiliation with two new bowl games; the International Bowl in Toronto, Ontario, and the Birmingham Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. So, do not give up hope, Louisville fans, when your team fails to make the Meineke Car Care Bowl. There now are other options.

• 3. Meet The Mountaineers. West Virginia was picked to win the conferece in the preseason media poll, grabbing 18 of 24 first-place votes. The Mountaineers are the only team to have won at least a share of the past three Big East titles. Second? Louisville. Last? Syracuse.

• 4. USF: Melon-Smashing Good. Even though its been around since 1956 and is the third-largest university in the state, the University of South Florida has produced exactly one great football player: Kenyatta Jones (if you consider him great). However, the Bulls make up for it in other areas. Among distinguished alumni are Tony La Russa and comedian Gallagher.