E-mail from Gopher Sports lists Gator Bowl and BWW Bowl as options?

[Minny4Life]

"More today from the Gator Bowl prez after their committee's final meeting prior to selection day. A courtesy mention of Minnesota:

"“What came out of the meeting is that our ideal choices seem to be either Georgia or Texas A&M against either Michigan [7-5] or Nebraska [8-4],” said Gator Bowl Association president Rick Catlett. “Our feeling is that we can’t miss this year and no matter how it turns out, it will be a matchup that will have nationwide appeal.”

Catlett said LSU (9-3) and Minnesota (8-4) are still possibilities"

Gophers needed to beat MSU to avoid this fiasco that is why Saturdays loss was kind of a blow. Most of us do not want to go to Houston because of the long drive to stadium and high airfare rates, plus Texas Tech fans.
To me the only way to avoid Houston is to try and pull some strings to BWW. The only way the Gator bowl takes us is if Michigan or Nebraska are not available. This would take MSU winning and OSU taking up second BCS spot or close MSU loss with at large BCS bid anyways.

Team A: 8-4 (4-4). Has won 4 out of last 6 games

Team B: 7-5 (3-5): Has lost 5 out of last 7 games

Committee: "We will take team A. Oh, that's Minnesota? Who's team B? Michigan? We take Michigan. "

Eff the bowl system.

 

[All Golden All Gopher]

IF the Gophers miraculously get the BWW bowl, I could see a potential prestige problem arising from casual fans that would result in less tickets sold. The casual fan might see this as going to Tempe for a bowl game for the 4th time in 8 years not realizing this time around it is rated higher than it was the other 3 times so they won't want to buy tickets to the game thinking its the same "crappy" bowl game the Gophers always go to.

I would prefer Florida as it is a new destination for the team and for the New Years Day date, but would love to go to either.

 

[Gophfan22]

BWW is not going to take us even if we had one more win. I mean if they're handing out Iowa can coozies and playing the Nebraska fight song in their restaurant across the street from the stadium before those games, then it's clear what they think of us

 

[50PoundHead]

The Gator Bowl is our destiny. How else could one explain why The Mitch Leidner High School (Lakeville North) Marching Band is playing there?

They've already named a high school after Mitch Leidner?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Team A: 8-4 (4-4). Has won 4 out of last 6 games

Team B: 7-5 (3-5): Has lost 5 out of last 7 games

Committee: "We will take team A. Oh, that's Minnesota? Who's team B? Michigan? We take Michigan. "

Eff the bowl system.

lol....funny, a little sad and probably not far from the truth.

 

[upnorthkid]

Team A: 8-4 (4-4). Has won 4 out of last 6 games

Team B: 7-5 (3-5): Has lost 5 out of last 7 games

Committee: "We will take team A. Oh, that's Minnesota? Who's team B? Michigan? We take Michigan. "

Eff the bowl system.

i think it will be interesting to see just how well michigan travels this year given their excessively disappointing year. will probably be some major apathy towards their bowl selection

 

[pharmacygopher]

I would take a trip to Tempe in a heartbeat! I can't speak for others....but as bad as we've been the past few years, I don't think people would take a trip to AZ for granted. When were were there last....2009 season? So it's been 4 years and I think we've been humbled and would enjoy this trip. I know I would!!

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

*The Cole Banham High School.

Leidner went to South

Oops! Thank you!

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

i think it will be interesting to see just how well michigan travels this year given their excessively disappointing year. will probably be some major apathy towards their bowl selection

Probably true and I am curious about that as well. That's only part of the equation for the bowls, however. They also have to factor in how locals will react to the match up and I venture to guess that far more fans in Jacksonville (or Tempe or Dallas) would be interested in buying a ticket to see Michigan/Nebraska rather than Minnesota. Even if that's not true, you can bet the bowls perceive it to be true.

 

[MGGopher]

Not sure what the goal was behind this little survey, as it's clearly an exercise in futility. NO WAY we leapfrog all three of Nebraska, Iowa, and Michigan to BW3...so that's clearly out of the question. The Gator Bowl president has already said on TWO occasions in public that they're taking Michigan. So why this little waste of time?

Although this still upsets me somewhat, I've come to grips with the situation over the past day or so (thanks in part to a nice article by TDG -- check it out if you haven't). I won't be attending the Texas Bowl (I know, I know -- I'm part of the problem then), but I'll happily relish the chance to watch one more Gophers game this year against a beatable opponent in a BCS conference. A primetime game on ESPN with the possibility to reach 9 wins sounds pretty cool, despite the d0uchebaggery of the bowl selection process.

 

[pointman99]

Does the locally HQ'd bowl sponsor have any pull over the BWWs participants?

 

[B1G Fan]

It surprised me that anyone is surprised that the bowls are passing up Minnesota every chance they can. It happens every year and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Keep in mind...their job is to sell tickets and make as much money on their bowl as possible. There are a lot more national fans for Michigan and Nebraska than there are Gopher fans total. Lets be real...you could take total attendance for 3 gopher games not against Iowa or Wisconsin and it wouldn't fill the Big House one time. Based on the looks of the Bank 35,000 people average is pretty close. Pretty pathetic since Iowa, Nebraska or Michigan would probably sell that many bowl tickets.

Start to fill the 50,000 seat stadium enough times that they add on and make it a 75,000 seat stadium and start filling that and bowls will start to take a look.

 

[pointman99]

Your 3 posts are a breath of fresh air B1G Fan...

 

[positively4thstreet]

It surprised me that anyone is surprised that the bowls are passing up Minnesota every chance they can. It happens every year and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Keep in mind...their job is to sell tickets and make as much money on their bowl as possible. There are a lot more national fans for Michigan and Nebraska than there are Gopher fans total. Lets be real...you could take total attendance for 3 gopher games not against Iowa or Wisconsin and it wouldn't fill the Big House one time. Based on the looks of the Bank 35,000 people average is pretty close. Pretty pathetic since Iowa, Nebraska or Michigan would probably sell that many bowl tickets.

Start to fill the 50,000 seat stadium enough times that they add on and make it a 75,000 seat stadium and start filling that and bowls will start to take a look.

Was the PSU loss that damaging to your psyche?

 

[MZBKA]

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. They are probably just trying to sell themselves to those two bowls. We can't go any lower than the Texas Bowl so there is no point in wasting their time talking to those guys.

We could end up at the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

We could end up at the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

As long as OSU and MSU get BCS bids, we can't go any lower than Texas. Most people think that Michigan isn't falling out of the Top 14 with a loss to the #2 ranked team in the country.

 

[Iceland12]

As long as OSU and MSU get BCS bids, we can't go any lower than Texas. Most people think that Michigan State isn't falling out of the Top 14 with a loss to the #2 ranked team in the country.

As long as they keep it close and with that Defense it should.

 

[stocker08]

It surprised me that anyone is surprised that the bowls are passing up Minnesota every chance they can. It happens every year and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Keep in mind...their job is to sell tickets and make as much money on their bowl as possible. There are a lot more national fans for Michigan and Nebraska than there are Gopher fans total. Lets be real...you could take total attendance for 3 gopher games not against Iowa or Wisconsin and it wouldn't fill the Big House one time. Based on the looks of the Bank 35,000 people average is pretty close. Pretty pathetic since Iowa, Nebraska or Michigan would probably sell that many bowl tickets.

Start to fill the 50,000 seat stadium enough times that they add on and make it a 75,000 seat stadium and start filling that and bowls will start to take a look.

Grab a calculator. Your math is poor.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

It surprised me that anyone is surprised that the bowls are passing up Minnesota every chance they can. It happens every year and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Keep in mind...their job is to sell tickets and make as much money on their bowl as possible. There are a lot more national fans for Michigan and Nebraska than there are Gopher fans total. Lets be real...you could take total attendance for 3 gopher games not against Iowa or Wisconsin and it wouldn't fill the Big House one time. Based on the looks of the Bank 35,000 people average is pretty close. Pretty pathetic since Iowa, Nebraska or Michigan would probably sell that many bowl tickets.

Start to fill the 50,000 seat stadium enough times that they add on and make it a 75,000 seat stadium and start filling that and bowls will start to take a look.

I'm sure Jesus loves you, but everybody else thinks you're a ass hole.

 

[GophersInIowa]

It surprised me that anyone is surprised that the bowls are passing up Minnesota every chance they can. It happens every year and I don't see it ending anytime soon.

Keep in mind...their job is to sell tickets and make as much money on their bowl as possible. There are a lot more national fans for Michigan and Nebraska than there are Gopher fans total. Lets be real...you could take total attendance for 3 gopher games not against Iowa or Wisconsin and it wouldn't fill the Big House one time. Based on the looks of the Bank 35,000 people average is pretty close. Pretty pathetic since Iowa, Nebraska or Michigan would probably sell that many bowl tickets.

Start to fill the 50,000 seat stadium enough times that they add on and make it a 75,000 seat stadium and start filling that and bowls will start to take a look.

For that to happen, it would mean some of the games would have to be about half full. You're telling me that, on average, there are over 10,000 no-shows per game? Okay.

Of course the attendance is not where it should be or where most hoped it would be, but you're exaggerating quite a bit.