Pitt's consolation prize for losing to Cincinnati with the Big East championship on the line is this: The Panthers will head to Charlotte, N.C., to play North Carolina (8-4) in the Meineke Car Care Bowl Dec. 26.

It is the second time the Panthers (9-3) have been selected for the game. They lost to Virginia, 23-16, in the then-Continental Tire Bowl in 2003.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said that the heartbreaking 45-44 loss Saturday to the Bearcats at Heinz Field still hurt and probably would for a while. But the fact the Panthers still get to play one more game might help ease the pain.

"It was a tough ball game," Wannstedt said. "But we have unfinished business and we have one more game to play. Charlotte is a great location; it is a place where a lot of our families and fans can get to easily and we are going to be playing against a top-notch football team.

"Today in the team meeting before we got word of our bowl game there was disappointment, obviously, but I know, in talking with our captains, that our team is excited to go down and finish the season strong, get the 10th win and continue to help build what we've been building here."

Pitt's selection to the bowl was somewhat surprising. Heading into the weekend, the Meineke Bowl had been lukewarm about inviting the Panthers because of the school's reputation for not traveling well to bowl games. In 2003, Pitt sold about 3,000 of its allotted 12,000 tickets.

That meant Bank of America Stadium, with a capacity of 73,504, held 51,000 fans, and only that many were there because Virginia had its largest volume of ticket sales for a bowl game.

But things changed in Pitt's favor when the Gator Bowl selected Florida State. That decision put a wrench in the ACC bowl lineup, enabling tthe Tar Heels to fall into the lap of the Meineke Bowl (Big East vs. ACC) for the second consecutive year.

North Carolina preferred a game with Pitt -- which is No. 17 in the final BCS rankings -- for a variety of reasons, and the bowl officials worked out a deal to make that matchup happen.

One of the key factors is that North Carolina will help sell a small portion of Pitt's ticket allotment, which is 12,500.

In addition, said Meineke Car Care Bowl executive director Will Webb, local ticket sales have continually grown, and more than 10,000 tickets are already taken for this year's game.

Rutgers (8-4) was the other Big East team under consideration for the bowl, but the Scarlet Knights' losses to West Virginia and to Syracuse a few weeks ago made them a less attractive option than Pitt -- even though they would likely sell more tickets.

"We're a relatively new bowl, this is our eighth year and to get a team like Pitt, which is ranked No. 17, helps to grow our brand," Webb said. "We're excited about having the Panthers here again.

"We have one of the best matchups of the bowl season and this will be one of the better games."

Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.