Gator Bowl Best Place for Huskers and Fans

8 comments so far December 15, 2008 by Tom Cudd

This article's title could have been called “Why I Love the Gator Bowl�. Once the Colorado game was complete, this was the best possible place that Nebraska could have ended up. From its effect on other teams, to it's television location, this is a great position for the Huskers to be in. At the beginning of the year, most media and people thought we would end up more like Kansas, playing against a team with four straight losses, on a channel that not everyone picks up, in a time slot when most people are far from thinking about football.

Instead, we are playing a solid match up when we're probably the best game on (head to head with Georgia v. Michigan State on ABC). The Huskers are also on right before a couple of the biggest bowl games of the year (Rose Bowl, followed by the Orange Bowl). People are going to be settling in for a full day of football.

If you look at the other Big 12 schools in bowl games, you will see that we've got probably the third best time slot:

Some would argue that Texas Tech has the third best, but if you're like me and many other people, you have to actually go back to work on the Friday after New Year's Day, which makes it difficult to watch football (unless you take a late, long lunch break).

Next to the nice time slot, I also enjoy how angry this bowl has made other teams and their fans. First of all, it means that Notre Dame was “snubbed� because they lost to a toothless Syracuse team, whose coach had just been fired. All the Irish had to do was stop that team on one play, but they couldn't. Everyone knew they weren't going to beat USC, so a bowl of the Gator's caliber doesn't pick a 6-6 team. In fact, by picking Clemson, they have picked their only five loss team in history.

By selecting Clemson, it angers a large subset of Florida State fans who also feel snubbed that their team wasn't picked over the Tigers. It's kind of nice not to even have to play the Seminoles (who are 8-4) and make them mad. I'd be upset too. Missouri should also feel a little jealous of Nebraska playing in the New Year. They beat us head to head and have a better record (for now) and got stuck with a Northwestern team that everyone around here I talk to thinks they're going to stomp (remember, I do live around Kansas City, Missouri – more to come on this match in the coming weeks).

The final selections did come down to ticket sales, local retail, and hotel reservations in Jacksonville. The bowl committee wanted to keep the area happy. Clemson and Nebraska had the most promising numbers for ticket sales and their traveling fans to spur the local economies. Normally, this type of thing used to upset me, but bowls are in it to make money, plain and simple (I don't begrudge them during the tough economic times, either). Until bowl games are thrown out in favor of a playoff system, there is no reason to complain. The Husker's nomadic fans speak to bowls with the one thing that is louder than the roar of the Memorial Stadium, their wallets.

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