Here's today's football fix.

Is is really too late for Ray Rice to change his mind and come back for one more year??

That was a fun trip to Toronto.

Ray on the Bike

The luck of the draw put our seats right behind the spot where Ray Rice took the bench after every offensive series. I love the snapshot up above. Right after halftime, number 27 went straight to the exercise bike behind the offensive bench and was pedaling as the Knights and the Cardinals lined up on the International Bowl logo for the second-half kickoff. His focus and his extra time on his conditioning paid off very early in the third quarter when the Knights started their first second-half possession on their own 2 yard line and Ray single-handedly picked up the missing 98 yards in three runs; the third a gaudy 90-yard sprint that took every bit of his talent and conditioning.

• It was a pleasure to be in Toronto to see the Scarlet Knights win 52-30.
• It was a pleasure to see Ray Rice topple Rutgers and Big East records with almost every run.
• It was a pleasure to be in Toronto. Period.

I just flew back this afternoon. Postgame highlights included trips to the Hockey Hall of Fame, to Niagara Falls, and nightly visits to a great local downtown pub. I hope that the International Bowl continues to draw bigger crowds and survives as the only game outside the US (and not only because the drinking age is 19 in Ontario). It's a wonderful city. I'd like to see the Knights make it to a bigger bowl next year, but if not, I'd go back north in a shot (and not just because O Canada is a much better song than The Star Spangled Banner).

And, as we all chanted after each of Ray's four touchdowns on Saturday afternoon until we were hoarse, "One More Year! One More Year!"

It's Exactly 24 Hours Until Kickoff in Toronto . . .

. . . and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are dressed in scarlet in honor or our Knights' arrival!

I'm not going to be flying into the Great White North until tomorrow morning. I'd love to be up there right now, but I'll stay for a day and a half after the game instead to see the CN Tower, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and some of these guys in red with the Smokey-the-Bear hats. You're supposed to tease them and tickle them and try to make them smile, right? Or is that the tradition in some other English-speaking nation with men in red wearing funny hats?

The thing I love about the International Bowl the most (so far) is its lack of corporate sponsorship. Canada will be around long after Tostitos and FedEx and GMAC and PapaJohnsDotCom are long forgotten (unless, of course, Cartman's Mom finally gets her way, eh?).

See you tomorrow!

Go Knights!

Ball State's most famous alumnus David "Dave" Letterman is back on the air tonight

Will his first post-strike Top Ten List® be a list of reasons that his alma mater's football team, the Speedy Cardinals, will lose the International Bowl to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday afternoon?

for any students who haven't yet planned a trip to Toronto:The International Bowl Is the Only Bowl with a Legal Drinking Age Lower than 21!!

The legal drinking age in the province of Ontario is 19, which should make everyone but college freshmen temporarily legal. If they put a bowl game in Quebec, Alberta, or Manitoba next year, then the age will drop to 18.

Actually, if they put a bowl game in ANY other country (other than Egypt, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Kiribati, the Mariana Islands, or the United Arab Emirates), the legal drinking age would be low enough to accommodate most college students.

Having been a charter member of the College Avenue Tavern Association and loyal customer at the Rusty Screw pub in the Student Center in the unfairly-maligned 1970's (often watching The Gong Show with a Guinness and a sandwich at lunchtime between classes), it's still hard for me to imagine being a college student now in Neo-Puritan America.

So enjoy Toronto kids, I'll see you there on January 5th!

Go Knights!

Wondering how you can repay Greg Schiano for his demonstrated loyalty to Rutgers?

"I was contacted earlier this week about the Michigan coaching vacancy, but I have decided to remove my name from consideration. I look forward to our third straight bowl game and to bringing a national championship to Rutgers and the state of New Jersey. I will have no further comment."

-- Greg Schiano, December 7, 2007

Well, if you haven't done anything yet to thank Greg Schiano for turning down the head coaching job at the University of Michigan, by all reports a very difficult decision, please thank him by ordering your tickets for the:

International Bowl
(January 5, 2008 at noon
at Toronto's Rogers Centre,
a.k.a. The Skydome)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
vs
Ball State Speedy Cardinals

Remember to get your tickets directly from RutgersBowl.com or ScarletKnights.com (or via 1-866-445-GORU), so that you'll be sitting with us scarlet-clad folks, and so the Knights will get credit for all the fans we're bringing to Toronto.

And, of course, if you don't yet have your season tickets, or your name on the season-ticket waiting list, please get your name on the list for seats at the Stadium. It won't take many more names before there is a guaranteed ass in every seat at the proposed stadium expansion that is so important to Greg and the future of the football program.

A Home Game for the Westermans

Senior defensive end Jamaal Westerman and freshman wide receiver Jawann Westerman both went to Notre Dame High School in Brampton, Ontario. Just look at the map to see how close this is to the site of the Scarlet Knights' next game at the International Bowl in Toronto on January 5th.

The third Canadian on the team, defensive end Jonathan Pierre-Etienne, is from a little farther away in Vieux Montréal, but at least he will find the national anthem familiar.

The Knights' next opponent: The Cardinals (from Ball State, not Louisville)

Maybe they can get James Gandolfini and Dave Letterman to be the ceremonial captains for this game on January 5th.

As of 4:00 this afternoon, it's official. We're Toronto bound!

Please be sure to practice these two songs before your trip (and mine) on January 5th:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

and, of course:

R-U, Rah, Rah;
R-U, Rah, Rah,
Whoo-Rah, Whoo-Rah;
Rutgers Rah
Up Stream Red Team
Red Team Up Stream
Rah, Rah, Rutgers Rah!

Here's the official announcement that just appeared on ScarletKnights.com:

Remember to please order your International Bowl tickets only through Rutgers (ScarletKnights.com, RutgersBowl.com, or 1-866-445-GORU) so that you'll be sitting with the sea of people wearing red, and so that the people who decide bowl invitations in the future see how well we support our team in the postseason.

Go Knights!

It'll be a great game, eh?

"If we were going strictly on travel, we probably would have taken Rutgers. Outside of West Virginia, they're probably the second-best traveling team in the Big East..."
-- Will Webb, executive director of the Meineke Car Care Bowl, quoted in this morning's Cincinnati Post.

Let's prove what great bowl travellers we are once again.

The formal invitations aren't out to the PapaJohns.com Pizza Bowl in Birmingham or the International Bowl in Toronto, but it's time to start planning a January trip to the Great White North! The Sun Bowl has formally invited the University of South Florida, the Meineke Muffler Shop Bowl has invited the Huskies of the Yukon (talk about a team that's custom built for a game north of the border), and it seems clear that the game in Alabama will choose the Bearcats and we'll be heading north to play either Bowling Green or Ball State -- no matter what the results of tomorrow night's game against the Louisville Cardinals.

We'll have better beer, we'll be able to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, we won't have to brave a trip south of the Mason-Dixon line, and we'll have a bowl trophy that doesn't double as an advertisement for a franchise that will be obsolete in 5-10 years.