[NU Sports] We beat Iowa five ways

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> The Cotton Bowl appears to have a pretty good crowd on
> hand.  And the game

I think it had a couple bonuses - TWO nearby teams and the historic part about being the last in that stadium - to help it along. It will be interesting to see if the Cotton can push to regain its top-tier status with the new stadium in Big D. You'd have to think that Orlando, San Diego, Atlanta and Dallas are gonna be pretty competitive to up their status in the coming bowl negotiation rounds and all can make pretty good cases to be included among the elite bowls.

Other than the Cotton and Rose (I don't care what the figures say, there were not CLOSE to 70,000 in Miami last night), the Peach also topped 70K. The Gator and the well-traveling Husker/Clemson fans topped 60K, but that's about it in this bowl season.

Part is the economy, I agree, but part is the decaying bowl system itself. When 6-6 = bowl, it's just not special anymore. Most of the bowls have lost their tradition and meaning. Plus most of the matchups this year plain old sucked on paper and you could see all of these non-competitive games coming a mile away. But the economy will take the blame and the bowl folk won't learn.

> is turning out to be suprisingly entertaining.

All I can think when I check in for a score update is how STUPID the folks at Arkansas must feel for pushing Houston Nutt out the door. That guy can coach. And the piggies got a slimeball in return who makes Nick Saban look trustworthy.

But not good news for the Big XII folk - their defenses have been absolutely shredded this bowl season (aside from the Huskers) and Texas' only legit claim for a split title now will have to be a big win vs. OSU and a close OU win since Florida's loss to Ole Miss looks better now (still was at home, though, while SC's was at Oregon State).

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

PS - The other NFL venue in trouble was Arizona. The theory being that most of the locals fled town for the New Year with the two bowl games in town and haven't come back yet. But they narrowly averted the Atlanta or Miami like embarassment of not supporting their team in a home playoff game (which would have been REALLY sad since it's the first one since '47 for the franchise!).

PPS - As a former Michigander, I will again say that Ford Field was the best stadium we've played a bowl game in outside of Pasadena ... and downtown Detroit was a pleasant surprise to most of us who attended the Motor City Bowl that year. Certainly not the Riverwalk, but I found it to be nicely revitalized with the two stadiums.