CreightonJay4MICHIGAN
Three-Star Recruit
I find that teams from areas with no other sports interest in the area seem to travel better than teams in metro areas of other teams (I.E. NBA, NFL, MLB, etc...) and furthermore, it looks like it's tied to the amount of "alternative entertainment" in general available for people.Outback Bowl WebsiteThe fact that Iowa got thte better bid has to piss UM off big time...
On the other hand, Michigan fans have apparently brought this on themselves..
For being a football mainstay, the Outback made no secret that they selected Iowa because Michigan fans haven't traveled well..... $$$$$$$$$, all about $$$$$$
Outback Bowl officials announced the 20th Anniversary game is an official sellout
less than 24 hours after announcing its match-up. The bowl extended invitations Sunday
to the University of Iowa and the University of Florida to play in this years game.
Both schools are distributing their allotment of tickets to their season ticket holders,
boosters and students and have indicated they will use all of their tickets. The bowl
will be played January 2, at 11:00AM and be televised on ESPN TV.
:bounce :bounce
USC is ridiculously good, but it looks like they never sellout- and this year's Rose Bowl won't exactly measure how well they "travel." But in Los Angeles, USC is hardly the only thing going on in the city to draw people in.
Iowa travels well, but in the state there's really nothing else going on (all due respect to the 'Clones and Northern Iowa Panthers-- who incidently are in the NCAA 1-AA Title game) I used to date a girl from Ames, and outside of a pretty cool haunted forest at Halloween, my Iowa experience was anything but action packed.
I have long considered the complacency of some Michigan fans and I really can't come up with much as to why it is how it is. Maybe the fan population is diluted due to interest in other local sports (Red Wings, Pistons, Lions(err.. I doubt it's because of them

It's a no-brainer for Nebraska, the closest competition Husker football has regionally is Creighton basketball, UNO Hockey, and Husker volleyball(say what?!) When I am home (Grand Rapids, MI) you see a lot of Michigan stuff... but there's sects for Michigan State boosters, Red Wing fanatics, and Piston freaks (Deeetrrroitt Baasskketball -- sorry, couldn't help myself), and even small contingencies for the lesser 1-A schools (Eastern, Western, Central, Detroit, and Oakland) . In Michigan we have a big draw because of our location admist the great lakes-- so there's a lot of involvement with that. Here in Omaha, you have your choice between red and red... and then there's always red. And outside of watching the Huskers, your next best option is the now Nate Funk-less Bluejays, the UNO hockey team (incidently Michigan will be playing UNO at the Civic in February- GO BLUE!), and whatever else the Qwest Center can offer us. So basically there's no other big ticket. So everyone is all 'Go Huskers.' And there's nothing wrong with that.
Big-time collegiate sports programs that come from metros that are otherwise athletically starved always draw: see Nebraska, Iowa, Tennessee, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn amongst others... I'm sure you could name plenty I haven't listed...
Look at some of the powers like USC, Miami, and Florida-- none of these have historically traveled well-- but crap, look where they're located. If you didn't have college football in those places, you'd be A-okay. If you didn't have college football here in Nebraska, I'm at a loss to figure out what would be going on here.
So that was a pretty nonsensical ramble, but hopefully there's some nuggets of validity hidden in there. What does everyone else think?