Some readers may remember the rumor last month, preposterous as it seemed. But as of this afternoon, 'tis rumor no more:

DETROIT – The Motor City Bowl was rechristened Wednesday as the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, with the Detroit-based pizza chain stepping up to sponsor the college football bowl game as two of the region's beleaguered automakers step down.

The great American car industry falls; the great American pizza industry rolls on.

Little Caesars has two automatic advantages over the other "Pizza Bowl," Birmingham's PapaJohns.com Bowl: a) It's sponsored by the actual pizza company, founded by Detroit Tigers and Red Wings owner and all-around Motown maven Mark Ilitch, as opposed to the Web site of the pizza company, founded by a guy who looks uncannily like Urban Meyer; and b) In my mind, anyway, Little Caesars is still riding the wave of one of the weirdest series of commercials of my formative years:

Personally, I haven't heard a peep from Little Caesars in at least a decade. But if they promise to bring back the subliminal advertising spots, I promise to give their lame MAC-Big Ten showcase a quarter of my time.