[NU Sports] Outback surprise ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Well, this is an unexpected topic. It still hasn't hit me yet.

But with a few minutes to calm down, a few things stand out ...

1) This is our first New Year's Day bowl since the Citrus in 1996-97 -- that's a big step for our program and Coach Fitzgerald. It's the big bowl to kick off bowl day - it has a national audience for the first half at least and leads into the Big Ten's Citrus game and the Granddaddy. It's a HUGE step up in exposure from the Champs or Alamo.

2) The lobbying effort by Phillips and Fitz must have been downright Herculean ... the Badgers were just at the Champs last year, were 9-3 and ranked, plus they have a tradition of traveling well. Granted we beat 'em, but we beat Iowa last year and tied for the league title in 2000, so I wasn't even thinking it was an option.

3) This makes the Wisconsin win all the more sweet - boy will the cheeseheads be steamed by this one. If you read the Hawaii game article on jsonline.com, they seemed sure a big win put them in Tampa.

Should be fun to watch the message boards ... Wisconsin's already starting to fume and Auburn's scratching their heads about who exactly Northwestern is and how both of us are surprising choices.

HAPPY NU YEAR!
GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!