NU Actually Beat Iowa 5 Ways

The Iowa-Northwestern Outback Bowl vs the Alamo Bowl controversey continues on the boards. Iowa fans are raving about their big win down in the Outback - that's fine. But NU Fan Chuck Herron points out that it was too bad for both bowls bottom line that Iowa didn't get a shot to show what they could do against the much better Missouri Tigers, sending the Wildcats to Florida last week.

We beat Iowa five ways

I wonder if the Outback Bowl people are kicking themselves ?

1 - We, NU, beat Iowa on the field. (At their Homecoming)

2 - We beat Iowa in the (Big 10) standings

3 - The Alamo Bowl beat the Outback Bowl in attendance, 55,986 to 55,117?(impressive considering they have a better date, Jan 1 vs. Dec 29, and the fact that it is much easier to fly into Tampa than into San Antonio)

4 - Since our football rebirth in 1995, the Outback Bowl has been averaging 61,864.? This year's attendance of 55,117 was DOWN almost 11%.? During the same period, the Alamo Bowl has averaged 60,677.? This year's attendance of 55,986 was down only 7.7%? (thanks to the sour economy)

5 - Both bowls have exhibited wide swings in attendance, the Alamo probably relates to the presence of a Texas team, or Michigan/Penn State/Ohio State from the Big 10.? The one constant is the number of Northwestern fans who show up for our bowls.
Without one of these teams, the Alamo averages 56,544.? Our attendance of 55,986 was down only 1% from this 'non-Texas, non-Big Ten giant's attendance.?

The Outback's Attendance looks similar with Florida, Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State.? Without one of these teams, the Outback averages 57,579.? This year's attendance was down almost 4.3% from the 'non-Florida, non-Big Ten giant' average

Unfortunately, the 6th way would have been to win our game, but as many have pointed out, our match-up was significantly worse than theirs.? And the Bowl committees don't really care about those kind of issues.

I have not seen the TV ratings for the Outback bowl, but it is probably not appropriate to compare ratings for a Monday night event with ratings for a New Years Day morning event.

Though I don't think the data exists, it would be interesting to compare the disposable incomes of the two fan bases, and to compare the average amount spent?by the Iowa and NU fans in the two host cities.

Chuck Herron Tech '85

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