Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett
The Charlotte Observer is reporting that North Carolina will likely be the ACC representative in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, and that's bad news for Rutgers.
As Tom Luicci points out in The Star-Ledger, there's almost no way that Meineke officials would want a rematch between the Scarlet Knights and Tar Heels, especially since North Carolina won 44-12 on Sept. 11 in Piscataway.
Since Rutgers looks like a long shot to go to the Sun Bowl, that means the Scarlet Knights may end up in the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the least desirable of all the Big East games. The opponent in that game is supposed to be an SEC team, but the SEC does not have enough eligible teams to fill that slot. The Sun Belt Conference has a deal with the game that allows its first available bowl-eligible team to fill an empty slot.
So depending on what happens in the Sun Belt this week, it's possible that Rutgers could wind up playing Arkansas State or Louisiana-Lafayette in Birmingham. Think the New York media market would get excited about that?
This is all dependent on Rutgers beating Louisville on Thursday night, of course.
Bennett joined ESPN.com in August 2008 after nine years at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., where he covered college sports and the University of Louisville beat. He lives in Louisville.
