Bowl rundown for Pitt, WVU

Louisville-Rutgers on Thursday night will mark the first and possibly last exit on the long and winding road (see below) to a bowl desintation for Pitt and West Virginia.

As of late yesterday, three bowls had both local Big East members high on their wish lists, so long as Rutgers wins and removes 6-6 Notre Dame from conference-tie-in availablilty to the Brut Sun Bowl, whose executive director, Bernie Olivas, readily admits that the Irish remain their top choice.

Let's do this bowl by bowl.

Sun: This Dec. 31 game chooses after the Gator, which will take a Big XII member and thereby leave the Sun with either Notre Dame (why it got into this tie-in business in the first place) or one of the six bowl-eligible Big East members. . .  and Rutgers with a win makes six. Ticket boosts mean nothing to these folks, with 80 percent of the sales done around El Paso. It's all about being telegenic here. And a 9-3 and ranked Pitt, should it win at Connecticut Saturday, makes it quite the Sun catch. Olivas is sending a representative to scout Pitt-UConn Saturday, and it's the other two bowl contenders weren't planning to do that for either that game or South Florida-West Virginia. "It's not completely Notre Dame right now," Olivas said, showing a glimmer that Pitt or West Virginia could get there regardless. "But if Rutgers wins, I think . . . Pitt, West Virginia and then Rutgers would be our order of preference. If Pittsburgh loses, that changes our thought processes real quick." Olivas has fond memories of Pitt in 1989 (the game where Paul Hackett was named head coach) and West Virginia in 1987 (before its 11-0 season) coming to the Sun, but "when [Mountaineers fans] left, I don't think there was a drop of tequila left in El Paso." Edge: Pitt first, liquor stores second.

Muffler. . . er, Meineke: This Dec. 27 bowl will wait until the Sun sets its matchup. Yet half of the equation was reportedly set Wednesday when Charlotte, N.C., game officials decided upon a North Carolina that already beat Rutgers. Should the Sun nab Notre Dame or someone other than No. 23 Pitt, the Panthers may well be the favorite here, even if it were to lose at UConn. Scouting no games Saturday "doesn't impact our decision at all as to who we're going to take," said bowl executive director Will Webb, who late yesterday wasn't planning on sending reps on scouting missions. "We're going to see how the Saturday games go." Still and all, Webb talks about Mountaineers fans reaching his bowl on a tank of gas -- they're always linked to liquids, huh? -- and boosting the economy by coming in droves to the 2002 inaugural game. Edge: One of the local teams will be playing here, but it's hard to imagine the Mountaineers slipping past this one.

PapaJohn's.com: Unless Loser. . . pardon, Louisville can somehow end its four-game losing streak, this Dec. 29 date in Birmingham says Hello, Rutgers! Which would be worse, a ranked Pitt or once-No. 8 West Virginia falling to here, or a bunch of Scarlet Knights riding a six-game winning streak? A better question: Have weirder things happened to West Virginia this season than finding a situation that sends it to Legion Field? Get this: The Pizza Bowl, among a half-dozen owned and operated by ESPN (it indeed is all about television), must invite a Sun Belt member because the tied-in Southeastern Conference doesn't have enough bowl-eligible teams. Edge: The 14 locations of Milo's Hamburgers, once Rutgers fans find out how delectable they are.

Then again, we had Dewey plus-3 in '48. No wonder this old coot would prefer a bowl trip to St. Petersburg, but it looks like the South Florida Bulls willl have to make that 23-mile trek south. Poor kids.

Now, back to the greatest front four in musical history. . .