The Big East's bowl picture still has two weeks to shake out its assorted outcomes, but it's unlikely USF will be making a trip across I-275 again to return to the St. Petersburg Bowl next month.

"It probably will be UConn or Rutgers. USF still has a chance, but the conference doesn't like people to go to the same place twice in a row," said Brett Dulaney, executive director of the St. Petersburg Bowl.  "We'd love to have USF. They brought a bunch of people, but I don't think the conference wants to do that."

Rutgers, which jumped into the top 25 last week before losing to Syracuse, has had a strong recruiting presence in Florida in recent years, and Connecticut, which needs one win in its final two games to become bowl eligible, has lost its five games by a combined 15 points.

It would seem that Central Florida is a strong match for St. Petersburg on the Conference USA side of things, but Dulaney said that side is less clear because the Hawaii and Armed Forces (Fort Worth) bowls pick ahead of St. Pete. He expects one of four teams: East Carolina, UCF, Southern Miss or Marshall.

The C-USA champ plays in the Liberty Bowl -- Houston can clinch a spot in the conference title game by beating Rice (2-9) this week, and the winner of this week's ECU-Southern Miss game will be the opponent.

If USF isn't in St. Petersburg, their most likely match is the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, with the International Bowl in Toronto possible but logistically unlikely.