Not sure when this one got reported, but it’s listed on each team’s schedule now: the Kentucky Wildcats will play the Pittsburgh Panthers in Birmingham, Alabama’s BBVA Compass Bowl on Jan. 8 at 1 p.m. The former PapaJohns.com Bowl has been around since 2006, with a Big East team winning every year.
Last year the Connecticut Huskies beat the South Carolina Gamecocks. Neither of these teams has ever participated. Wikipedia has very low hopes:
6-6 Big Blue upset South Carolina, its only noteworthy win, though it also played the Auburn Tigers and Mississippi St. Bulldogs close. Pitt went 7-5 and beat a bunch of Big East teams that sort of run together, getting blown out by the Miami Hurricanes and also losing to the Utah Utes, who we eventually discovered weren’t very good at all. A natural selling point for this game: Randall Cobb vs. Dion Lewis, a pair of exciting and versatile athletes.