Batting Around is BC Sports' look back at the week's happenings in the world o' sports, presented in a lineup card format for some undisclosed reason.

The Lineup Card

1. CF Eric Byrnes
2. QB Matt Grothe
3. SG Kobe Bryant
4. LF Manny Ramirez
5. #"60" Carl Edwards
6. DE Paul Spicer
7. RB Adrian Peterson
8. G Niklas Backstrom
9. RP Rafael Betancourt
Manager: Dusty Baker

1. CF Eric Byrnes — I guess this is how karma works. One minute you say the Colorado Rockies weren't outplaying your Arizona Diamondbacks, and then in Game 4 you ground into the final out of the NLCS.

Byrnes' reward? If history is any indication, he must now sit next to Jeanie Zelasko during the World Series as a guest studio analyst. Tough break, bro.

2. QB Matt Grothe — He's the quarterback of the No. 2 BCS-ranked football team in America. And his school's football program didn't even exist until a year before the inception of the BCS.

Grothe threw for 212 yards and ran for exactly 100 yards, totaling four touchdowns in a 64-12 blowout of in-state directional rival Central Florida. The USF Bulls are now 6-0, one of six undefeated teams, but virtually all computer rankings dictate that USF's wins are by far the most impressive, including wins over West Virginia and at Auburn.

In 1996, South Florida didn't have varsity football. But this year, if they win their final six games — at Rutgers, at UConn, at Syracuse, at Pittsburgh, and home against Cincinnati and Louisville — they are going to be in the BCS Championship game.

South Florida. In the BCS Championship. It wouldn't exactly be a Boise State-type Cinderella story, because USF is actually in a BCS conference. But to understand the youth of the program, consider that the rest of the BCS's top ten teams have been on record playing organized football games at least 100 years before USF football ever existed:

• No. 1 Ohio State - football program began in 1890
• No. 3 Boston College - football program began in 1893
• No. 4 LSU - football program began in 1893
• No. 5 Oklahoma - football program began in 1895
• No. 6 South Carolina - football program began in 1892
• No. 7 Kentucky - football program began in 1881
• No. 8 Arizona State - football program began in 1897
• No. 9 West Virginia - football program began in 1891
• No. 10 Oregon - football program began in 1894

3. SG Kobe Bryant — I haven't heard any trade demands out of Los Angeles. I was getting worried there for a while.

Ah, here we are. By the start of the season Bryant could be playing for the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, or about a dozen other teams?