Below The Beltway

For perhaps the first time in the history of college football, the eyes of the world will be focused tonight on my hometown, Piscataway, New Jersey, as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights take on the Louisville Cardinals:

Last week it was Louisville’s turn to bask in the novelty of its big-time football relevance. “The Showdown in the ‘Ville,” as the Cardinals’ historic upset of West Virginia was dubbed, was hailed as the biggest game in the history of the city, the Bluegrass State and the Big East Conference.

That heady, surreal sense of belonging with the big boys has migrated from the Falls of the Ohio, where Louisville is located, to “the banks of the Old Raritan.” So go the lyrics of the Rutgers alma mater, composed by Howard Fullerton in 1873 — a full four years after his university made history fielding a team which clashed with Princeton in the first-ever college football game. (Rutgers won, 6-4, despite the admonition of an umbrella-waving professor who shouted at players on both sides, “You will come to no Christian end!”)

It’s been 137 years, but the 8-0, 15th-ranked Scarlet Knights will finally play a game of comparable magnitude. In the Big East’s second battle of ranked unbeatens in seven days, No. 3 Louisville visits Rutgers Stadium tonight. Ticket-seeking students camped out in a shantytown named for the head coach (in this case, “Schianoville”). For the first time in its history, a ranked Rutgers team will face a ranked opponent.

Louisville was over-powering last week against West Virginia, so the Knights are clearly underdogs going into this, but, nonetheless, Go Rutgers !