[NU Sports] Music City Bowl Opponents

[Bradley G. Kaiser]

Stephen Truog writes:

>> * MUSIC CITY: Northwestern vs. South Carolina - Cats
>> slip here (and Vandy came sooooo close vs. Florida to
>> winning and having a chance to make it NU-Vandy in the
>> Brains Bowl!) but it's probably better than facing the
>> Pac 10's #3 in the Sun Bowl or a Texas team in the    
>> Alamo Bowl in terms of chances for a win. Spurrier vs. 
>> Walker should at least produce some offensive sparks.

I'm of course watching this possibility intensely down here
in Nashville :-).  South Carolina may not be our most likely
opponent.  They still have Florida (Spurrier vs. Florida is
going to be an interesting storyline) and Clemson (Spurrier
vs. Bowden, again) on their schedule, so they may not get
to seven wins, though they're already bowl-eligible, of
course.

If Tennessee wins v. Memphis and @Kentucky (as they should),
and Vanderbilt beats Kentucky at home (as they should), the
Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt winner will have six wins and be
bowl-eligible.  I think the Music City Bowl may well take
that team over South Carolina for the obvious reason that
they'll sell a whole lot more tickets to UT or even Vanderbilt
fans than they will to South Carolina fans.  Either of those
teams in the MuCB is probably guaranteed to sell 30,000
tickets.  UT, even in a bad year (for them), can probably
sell 40,000.

Vanderbilt vs. NU would be the battle of two brainy schools
that do things the right way, and the battle of two NFL-quality
quarterbacks.  (Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler is their answer to
Brett Basanez.  Their receivers and backs aren't as good as
ours, but their defense is probably better.)

UT vs. NU would the '97 Citrus Bowl rematch, without Peyton
Manning (except maybe in the stands).  If we can bring our
"A" game, I can easily see us beating the Vols.  They're really
struggling this year, especially on offense.

Brad Kaiser
(bkaiser at heartoftn.net)