Hope the Idaho Vandals Have an American Expess Card

Looks like it's gonna be one of those seasons for Idaho football.

• The good news is the Vandals' coach is the Petrino brother who doesn't lay down his blonde-packing motorcycle.
• The bad news is they've gotta be in Monroe, Louisiana next Saturday.
• The worse news is their limbo-status match-up with the University of Florida puts $750,000 of their athletic budget in jeopardy.

Was it an omen that the Florida Gators had a return man named Valdez Showers? His 70-or-so-yard scamper was the day's only human highlight before 243 lightning bolts in 10 minutes riddled the Gainesville skies, tearing open deluge-laden thunderclouds.

Long story short, that was that.

So what happens now?

The Vandals would gladly trade places with any of college football's other unfortunates on the day, such as:

• Arkansas, whose assistant coaches got stuck in an elevator at halftime and couldn't get to the locker room. The Razorbacks were tied at the time with Auburn at 21-all. Final score: Tigers 45, Hogs 21.
• Kansas, after FCS powerhouse North Dakota State showed there's a reason the Jayhawks get phone calls from the SEC and they don't by notching their fourth win in four years over FBS opponents when they blew out Iowa State, 34-14.

That $950,000 whuppin' check the Gators were supposed to write now depends on whether or not Florida wants to get their uniforms dirty the week before they venture up to Jax-Town for their annual matinée with a Georgia team that looked more ominous than the local thunderclouds yesterday.

Unless the Gators need a sixth win to make a bowl game this season, there's a very real chance the Vandals will get stiffed, with the exception of their travel expenses being covered. But that's small consolation. They're in the Sun Belt Conference, which means there are other long trips to cover.

Like that junket down to UL-Monroe next week. Bummer.