Everyone knows what Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino will bring to the Big East Conference: A lot of personality and a perennial top-25 college basketball program. What the Big East probably wasn't banking on was getting a top-25 football program out of Louisville.

The Louisville football team is 3-0 and ranked 22nd in this week's Associated Press poll.

The Big East is guaranteed an automatic berth in the Bowl Championship Series for now, but there are no guarantees in the long term. That's why the much-maligned conference needs teams such as Louisville and Connecticut to hit the ground running. Connecticut is in its first season in the league and has a 3-1 record heading into its game tomorrow against Pitt. Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida join next season.

Among the three new entries from Conference USA, Louisville is in the best shape. South Florida is 2-1 and Cincinnati 2-2. Next season, Louisville will return seven starters on offense, including the entire offensive line. All-conference quarterback Stefan LeFors graduates, but Brian Brohm, the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the country last season, is his backup and is 19 for 25 for 165 yards in mop-up duty this season. The defense graduates six players, but some young players behind them are well-regarded.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese is looking for several teams to step up their play, but he expects Louisville to be one of the teams to fill the void left by Miami and Virginia Tech, which left after last season to join the ACC.

"That's the interesting thing," Tranghese said. "There's an opportunity for a lot of people in our league to be the name team. Our coaches all think they can get there. Louisville thinks they can do it. West Virginia thinks they can do it. Pitt thinks they can do it. We have a lot of teams that can do it. It's very different from the way it used to be with Miami, where everyone lined up behind them for second. It's not going to be that way anymore. Who is that [name] team going to be five years from now? I don't know, but it's going to be interesting to find out."

Tranghese recently took a trip to Louisville and came away impressed. He said the Cardinals should benefit from a recruiting standpoint now that they are part of a BCS conference.

"Louisville is good now," Tranghese said. "But now they think they can sell the fact that they'll be in a conference with an automatic berth in the BCS. That will help them. I've been to Louisville. They have some good young football players. They got the top quarterback recruit in the country. Louisville has potential."

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, in his second season, has the only team in Division I-A with two shutouts this season. The Cardinals blanked Kentucky, 24-0, in the opener and then shut out North Carolina on the road, 34-0, last week. Louisville's toughest test comes next Thursday when it travels to No. 4 Miami for an ESPN national telecast.

"I probably wasn't expecting our defense to play this well," Petrino said. "But we have a bunch of guys back. Last season they took a lot of criticism. We didn't have much experience last year. This year, they're playing faster and together and making plays. They're a lot further along than I thought they would be."

The same can be said for the entire program. And for the Big East, that's good news.

Vandalized
Idaho is the land of the potato, and the state's football team is getting mashed. The Idaho Vandals are playing 9 of their 11 games on the road this season. The Vandals' first home game isn't until next week.

Four of the non-conference "buy" games -- games in which Idaho is paid to visit a bigger school for a large sum of money, usually around $100,000 or 200,000 -- are against teams that played in bowl games in 2003.

So far, the schedule has produced predictably horrific results. The Vandals are 0-4 and have been outscored, 176-32.

Lost and found
Former Ellwood City quarterback Sonny Riccio spent two seasons at Missouri as the backup to Heisman Trophy candidate Brad Smith. After realizing he wouldn't get his opportunity with the Tigers, Riccio transferred to Delaware, where he is leading one of the top teams in Division I-AA.

Riccio was 11 for 18 for 115 yards and two touchdown passes and ran 17 times for 70 yards in a 21-7 victory Saturday at Massachusetts. On the season, he is 58 for 97 for 514 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. The Blue Hens, defending I-AA champions, are 3-1 and ranked fourth in the I-AA poll.

Gradkowski among leaders
Despite his team's rough start, Toledo quarterback Bruce Gradkowski is playing well. Gradkowski, a junior from Seton-LaSalle High School, is 10th in NCAA Division I-A in pass efficiency. He has completed 69 percent of his passes for 1,031 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions in four games. Toledo surprised Pitt last season and finished 8-4. But the Rockets haven't capitalized on their past success, going 2-2 so far this season, with blowout losses at Minnesota (63-21) and Kansas (63-14).

Heart of the matter
It's not often a coach will question his team's heart, especially at a military academy, but that's exactly what Cadets coach Bobby Ross did after a 40-3 loss at Connecticut last week. In his opening statements at his postgame news conference, Ross apologized to "our core, to our administration, our fans and even our troops."

"I question our effort and whether we had the will to want to win," he continued. "There's not a fire in their eye, sometime you can tell when you get on the bus. We should learn never to give up."

Ross did not back off his quotes Monday.

Army has the longest losing streak in Division I-A at 18 games.

Hitting the holes
It turns out that last week's No. 1 rush defense in the Division I-A had a lot of holes. Rice had the No. 1 ranking heading into its game against Texas. Texas rushed for 339 yards, or 324 more than Rice had given up in its first two games combined against Hawaii and Houston. On the positive side, Rice "held" Texas to 47 yards below its season average.

No poker, no problem
ESPN's Wednesday night football debuts tonight when Miami, Ohio, plays at Marshall on ESPN2. In November, we'll be treated to three weeks of Tuesday night football, all involving Mid-American Conference teams.

Hey, ESPN had to put something on now that the World Series of Poker is over. A college football game will be played every day of the week this season. Remember when college football was for Saturdays?

Quick hits
Can someone please tell me why Penn State's Calvin Lowry is returning punts? He called for a fair catch against Wisconsin without a player within 20 yards of him. He did the same thing much of last season. If there's any team in the country that can't afford to give away field position, it's Penn State. ... Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany's edict to technical advisers not to review every questionable play, especially those early in games, is growing troublesome. Replays clearly showed Penn State tight end Isaac Smolko caught a pass for a first down against Wisconsin in the first half, yet the play was not reviewed. Here's a prediction: Any form of replay in ensuing seasons will be NFL-style, with challenge flags. ... The last time Pitt squeaked by a Division I-AA opponent was in 1998, when the Panthers beat Villanova, 47-41. That team finished the season 2-9. This Pitt team isn't that bad, is it?