It's almost gametime and I'm not in Alabama

I was in Houston for RU's first bowl win against Kansas State at the Texas Bowl and I was in Toronto for the Knights' second bowl win against Ball State in the International Bowl. It's not any lack of confidence in this hot 2008 team that's left me here at work rather than drinking beer and chanting RU Rah Rah with the band in that great pregame ritual at this afternoon's Pizza Bowl. It has something to do with the fact that I'm the only person in my department who's not on vacation or medical leave (but I probably could have ignored that during this slow week), and the fact that I feel like spending as little as possible (outside of necessities like alimony and my son's college tuition) during this recessionary end of the Bush regime, and the fact that the game is in Alabama (in addition to all the old reasons to hate the Deep South, see some brand new reasons at boycottalabamanow.com), but I think that the biggest reason that I'm here rather than there may be the bowl game's idiotic mercenary name. Even if it were named the "papajohnsdotcom Birmingham Bowl", or the "papajohnsdotcom Alabama Bowl", we could ignore the commercial prefix and call it by its geographical moniker. The International Bowl and The Texas Bowl were great names. "The Mediocre Pizza Chain Bowl" SUCKS! And what's the deal with having a game on at three in the afternoon on a weekday?

But I'll be trying to watch from work on ESPN360.com in half an hour, maybe moving to a Hoboken bar at halftime.

GO KNIGHTS! Show the Wolfpack and the ACC that the game on September 11 was a fluke.