Conventional wisdom has Rutgers headed to the International Bowl in Toronto for their New Year's festivities.  But wait, Greg Schiano still seems to be a bit cagey about the Knight's ultimate destination.  What's to be cagey about? West Virginia's in the BCS, Connecticut has agreed to the Meineke Car Care Bowl and Cincy has committed to the papajohns.com bowl.   Everyone believes the Sun Bowl will take South Florida, which is the highest ranked Big East team after the Mountaineers.  So that leaves the International Bowl for Rutgers right?

During his radio show last night, Schiano wouldn't quite say that this was the case.  He mentioned again that there might be the possibility of some kind of "bowl trade" with a bowl that doesn't have enough bowl eligible teams.  He noted that this should definitely be sorted out by Saturday.

So which bowls don't have enough bowl eligible teams?  Only two. The Texas Bowl in Houston,  this year pits Conference USA against the Big 12  which may not have enough bowl eligible teams.  The Armed Forces Bowl, in Fort Worth, featuring the Pac-10/Mountain West, may not have a bowl eligible Pac-10 team.  Rutgers won the Texas Bowl last year so a return there would be unlikely.  The Armed Forces Bowl however is slated to serve up Air Force as an opponent.  The Falcons are presently ranked 29th by the BCS, which has pegged Rutgers at 35.  None of Rutger's potentional MAC conference foes in the International Bowl are ranked by the BCS.  Could Schiano be angling for an invite to the Armed Forces Bowl to complete a service academy sweep? (RU beat both Navy and Army this season).  Could be.  Rutgers would improve its final ranking much more with a win over Air Force than an unranked MAC opponent. 

 Schiano's comment that this should play out by Saturday is also illuminating.  If Rutgers beats Louisville on Thursday, they'll finish at 8-4.  That's one game better than Purdue, which is presently being touted as an Armed Forces Bowl participant, who finished the season at 7-5.  So here's the prediction.  If Rutgers beats Louisville they head south to the Armed Forces Bowl. (My apologies to Fort Worth for the "border" comment.  I know you guys are a good distance from Mexico, but it made for a good headline!)  If Rutgers loses and finishes 7-5, get out the dogsleds because it's Toronto for the Knights.  So the result of the Rutgers/Louisville may not be as "meaningless" as the pundits profess.  We'll see!