[NU Sports] Fort Worth?

[Jonathan Hodges]

While collegefootballnews is predicting an MSU over PSU upset and us
falling off of the Big Ten bowl radar, almost every other news outlet
is predicting us in the Music City Bowl (CNN: Mandel, USA Today, CBS
SportsLine), which is still very likely.  They were going to invite us
last year if we had won our final game and become eligible (which
would have been over Minnesota, who ended up going).

Of course we will have to wait until after this week's games to see
how everything pans out (NU's game, PSU @ MSU, and Minn @ Iowa), but
we're basically in the hunt for the Motor City, Music City, or Sun
bowls with Minnesota and Iowa.  (And there is OSU's chance go make it
2 Big Ten teams in BCS games, and that may make the wait even longer).
 Right now we all have the same overall record, which won't play a
factor since the bowls can pick among any teams within a loss of each
other.

The way I see it: if Iowa beats Minnesota, they will almost definitely
take the top spot available (Sun Bowl, or Alamo if OSU gets the BCS
bid) as they have the best traveling fans.  NU and Minnesota would
presumably be left, and I would think the Music City Bowl would prefer
NU again (as they would have last year) due to attendance.  Looking at
past attendance figures, last year's game was a sellout at 66,000+
(most likely due to Alabama's presence), but 2 years prior when
Minnesota faced Arkansas attendance was around 39,000.  Also,
Minnesota has been 2 of the past 3 years, and another trip probably
would not bring as many fans.  This bodes favorably to us, as we will
most likely get the nod over them.  If OSU does lock up a second BCS
bid, then the Sun Bowl may very well have a similar predicament as
Minnesota went back in 2003 as well.  Hopefully this means NU gets
picked over Minnesota - which hopefully means no trips to Detroit and
no getting stuck waiting for an at large bid.

Of course, a few things could throw a wrench into things: MSU beating
PSU being the worst.  If Minnesota wins and we lose, that would also
give the bowls a chance to knock us down a slot.  If Minnesota wins
and we win as well, would we be picked over an Iowa team with one more
loss than us that we also beat?  Would Minnesota be picked over us as
they would have the same overall record but one more conference loss? 
That's a lot of what ifs, but I'm glad we're debating this instead of
trying to pick up that 6th win this week.

Jonathan



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Jonathan W. Hodges
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