For those of UConn fans who stayed up Saturday night and watched Stanford rally past Notre Dame, 45-38, here's the good news:

Your Huskies are now guaranteed a bowl bid for the third consecutive season and fourth time since becoming a full-fledged Division I-A program (I still have a hard time calling it the FBS).

The Fighting Irish needed a win to finish 7-5 and keep themselves in contention for the Gator Bowl, one of the Big East's six bowl affiliates. With the Irish out of the picture, only six Big East teams are bowl eligible, meaning all six will play a 13th game this season.

UConn will likely play in either the St. Petersburg Bowl on Dec. 19 against a Conference USA opponent or in the PapaJohn's.com Bowl on Jan. 2 in Birmingham (Ala.) against an SEC school. We'll break down the Big East bowl scenarios in the coming days.

The bad news: middle linebacker Greg Lloyd, who injured his left knee with 4:31 remaining in Saturday's 56-31 win over Syracuse, tore both his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments and is done for the season.

Coach Randy Edsall said during his Sunday conference call that Lloyd will have surgery later this week. The junior will also miss spring practice, Edsall said, but is hopeful Lloyd will be ready to go when training camp begins next August.

Scott Lutrus will slide over from the outside to replace Lloyd while redshirt freshman Jory Johnson will replace Lutrus on the outside. Johnson saw regular action in the six-plus games Lutrus missed with a stinger.