It's not going to happen, guys. It's not EVER going to happen.

  South Florida's upset loss to Pittsburgh Thursday night crushed any outside shot the Bulls might have had of playing for the national title, but at least the fans are taking it well.

At the risk of raining on the Panther parade, this is about the worst thing that could have happened to the Big East. The odds of a BCS conference finishing with four or five teams tied atop the standings with one game over .500 records may never be this great again.

"Defense wins championships" has been my least favorite cliché since I was four-years-old, and I'm stunned that 20 years later we still have people completely unwilling to admit that both defense and offense have won every single championship since the dawn of sport. A slightly more accurate saying would be "offense wins BCS upsets." Boise State, Kansas, West Virginia '06, West Virginia '08; all tremendous offenses. This line of thinking would lead fans of the Big East to pull against Connecticut and (probably) Pittsburgh and South Florida, while pulling for West Virginia and (perhaps) Cincinnati or Louisville, depending on how quickly their QB's heal and how they look over the next two or three weeks.

Of course the more cynical (read: logical) among us might conclude after Thursday night that whichever Big East team advances to the BCS will either have their heads handed to them or be paired with an appropriately unappealing counterpart and play in a game nobody else will remember ten days later.

Me, I'm going with Louisville over USC in the Rose Bowl...big.

Victor Anderson gets some fellatious ink (the best kind) from The Associated Press.

Things broke wide open against Kansas State, as Anderson shook loose for three long touchdowns. Yet for all his speed, it's perhaps his toughness that has endeared him to coaches and teammates. It can take young phenoms awhile to learn that not every play will turn into a 60-yard score. Not Anderson.

Ask Alford what Anderson's most impressive play has been this season and it's not the 18-yard touchdown pass against Connecticut where he absolutely froze a UConn player on his way to the end zone, but a 5-yard gain against Kansas State.

"He got hit like, right at the line of scrimmage by some big defensive lineman and there was nothing there," Alford said. "Vic though turned his body around and turned it into five yards. That just shows you how good his instincts are."

I bashed Facebook far too hard when it first came out to ever turn back now, but for those of you who do Book, there is apparently (I can't see it, I'm too cool for Facebook...and Rajon Rondo) a group set up for Jerb's son Shawn.

You wouldn't expect a UConn blog titled "The UConn Blog" to blow you away with creativity, but the folks over there did a smashing job (suburban Connecticut voice) with a post comparing Big East football teams to characters on The Office.

It's hard to argue with Louisville's current role.

Ryan Howard

The Cards came in to the Big East kind of like a temp; expected to do alright, but still just expected to make West Virginia’s coffee. Then came 2006, when the Cards, like Ryan, ascended to the top of the ranks in the conference.

Unfortunately, those dizzying heights were far too dizzying. Louisville came crashing down in 2007 with a new coach who preached allowing Syracuse to score 38 points against them. Ryan, meanwhile, was fired for fraud. I could scrap a thesis out of this one, I swear.

South Florida's been looking at me kind of, a lot, all week. I would be creeped out by it, but it's nothing compared to the way Pittsburgh looks at me.

You can read the full introduction - "Anatomy of a Comeback" - of Rick Pitino's new book on ESPN.com. There's a brief mention of both the '01 Tennessee and '05 West Virginia comeback wins.

Gary Barnidge: currently your 44th-rated fantasy football tight end. Probably a stretch as a free agent pickup.

And finally, even if Aaron Rodgers is unable to go for the Packers on Sunday it's unlikely that Brian Brohm will see his first professional regular season snap, as he worked "almost exclusively" with the scout team on Thursday.