By Gavin Lapaille

The No. 3 Louisville Cardinals football team lost to the No. 15 Scarlet Knights of Rutgers 28-25 on Thursday. Louisville (8-1, 3-1) was plagued by penalties and poor quarterback play out of Brian Brohm, while Rutgers (9-0, 4-0) shut down the highly ranked Louisville offense in the second half.

“We were totally out of sync in the second half, and that can’t happen,” said Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino.

Despite a fast start including a 100-yard kickoff return by JaJuan Spillman that went for a touchdown and a couple of huge plays through the air, the Cardinals could not hold their early 25-7 lead.

While the loss leaves them any hopes of a title shot in the dark, the future remains somewhat bright for the Cards who still have a lot to play for down the stretch.

With three games left, Louisville’s bowl projection is still wide open. The Big East conference has tie-ins with six bowls and it still remains a possibility that Louisville could land in one of the other four BCS bowl games. If Rutgers loses one game and Louisville wins out, the team who is the highest ranked in the BCS standings would claim the automatic BCS bid. It is also possible that Louisville could claim one of the four BCS at-large bids, even if they did not finish ranked ahead of Rutgers.

Outside the BCS, Louisville could end up returning to the Toyota Gator Bowl or to the Brut Sun Bowl, as by a unique stipulation either would have the top choice after the BCS Bowls from the Big East. The Gator Bowl would match up the Cardinals against a team from the ACC while the Sun Bowl would see Louisville take on a team from the PAC-10. Normally the Meineke Car Care Bowl receives the next pick, but that slot has already been issued to Navy in a one-time deal that automatically qualified the Midshipmen for the bowl game assuming they were eligible. The Texas Bowl would have the next pick, followed by the International Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl. Louisville is probably looking at a second consecutive Gator Bowl bid, but depending on the remaining games they could move to a higher – or lower – game.

Students have several opinions on whether or not they will make the trip to see the Cards play in a bowl.

“I would love to go to any of the BCS bowl games, but I would most likely be unable to go for financial reasons,” said freshman Dustin Rasche, a justice administration major. “Maybe if U of L put together a good cheap package I could, but otherwise I will be cheering loud and hard from my living room.”

Some students did say they would attempt to travel to whatever bowl Louisville went to.

“After following the Cards through one of their best seasons ever, I can’t wait to go to a bowl game,” said sophomore Steven Hibbs, a political science major.

Next up for the Cards is the South Florida Bulls.