Is there anything preventing this from happening?IU and UK fans would come to J’Ville in droves for that one.
Last edited:
Lets talk chances of 8-4 Indiana v 7-5 Kentucky in Gator Bowl
- Thread starter HerrosHeroes
- Start date
As someone with a friend that has a beach condo in Saint Augustine, I fully support it.
It would be a very intriguing mid tier bowl matchup for sure!
2 border states and historically hated rivals that disdain each other so much they wont play anymore in football or basketball.
Both states within driving distance of north Florida.
It would be a good one a sell out!
2 border states and historically hated rivals that disdain each other so much they wont play anymore in football or basketball.
Both states within driving distance of north Florida.
It would be a good one a sell out!
Last edited:
If that happened and we could win, that would even up the series. I believe they have a 1 game edge, even though Kentucky dominated the series in its final years.
I thought there was a chance to meet up with them earlier in the year and mentioned how great that would be in a thread.
It makes perfect sense to me.
A lot of Kentucky and Indiana folks are down in Florida that time of year anyway. Snowbirds + holiday vacation-goers.
Would be a great opportunity for a pretty awesome game atmosphere for the viewing public and Bowl group.
Two fan bases with a natural dislike for one another. Two programs on the rise.
I think it could act as a catalyst for each AD to talk about working out a series, thus renewing a natural cross-river rivalry.
We've played about half a dozen different teams out of Ohio and Michigan pretty regularly over the past decade or so and to the best of my recollection, nobody from Indiana since the Hoosiers beat Woodson and Brooks...
It's just time to shuffle things around in the OOC.
It makes perfect sense to me.
A lot of Kentucky and Indiana folks are down in Florida that time of year anyway. Snowbirds + holiday vacation-goers.
Would be a great opportunity for a pretty awesome game atmosphere for the viewing public and Bowl group.
Two fan bases with a natural dislike for one another. Two programs on the rise.
I think it could act as a catalyst for each AD to talk about working out a series, thus renewing a natural cross-river rivalry.
We've played about half a dozen different teams out of Ohio and Michigan pretty regularly over the past decade or so and to the best of my recollection, nobody from Indiana since the Hoosiers beat Woodson and Brooks...
It's just time to shuffle things around in the OOC.
Why would we play them in either sport? They typically aren’t good in either sport. In basketball, I’d rather play a better team. In football, I’d rather just play cupcakes and then Louisville OOC. Our schedule is hard enough most years, no need to handcuff ourselves like South Carolina did this year. There is no need to play them every year.
While I always enjoy beating iu, I'd rather play a team with a name and/or a team from a conference other than the big tin. Maybe VPI. Too bad we could not score a game with a west coast team or maybe a big twelve team.
For those clamoring to play the U, consider they are but 6-6 snd lost their last 2 games to FIU and Duke!
One thing that might prevent such a matchup, the Gator has the lowest payout of the so called gang of six bowls with SEC tie-ins. Since there are not enough SEC bowl eligible teams to fill all six, the Gator may not get an SEC team.
I always thought the UK IU matchup was too rooted in basketball. Need bigger horizons.
Indiana is having a good year, but I would like to play a more traditional football school.
UK fans are looking at IU the same way other schools look at us. They are a good but somewhat inconsistent team that has a very underrated head coach.
It's one of those teams that if you beat them, it makes few ripples. If you lose to them you hear "Wow, you got beat by indiana?" I want to play a Football school.
No thanks to playing IU. Bring on a football school like last year. Plus we have already played a big ten school last year.
Playing Indiana won't likely sell tickets like it would with other teams. I'm not sure how big a crowd they would even bring. We have been getting screwed in recent years with opponents that don't travel or don't have very large fan bases. Georgia Tech at the Gator Bowl (3rd worst attended game there since 1958) and Northwestern at the MCB (worst attendance there in 14 years). I would guess the Indiana crowd would be like those 2.
By the way, the Gator Bowl seems to be trending downward. The past 3 years the attendance there has been 43,102 (Georgia Tech/Kentucky), 41,310 (Mississippi St/Louisville), and 38,206 (Texas A&M/NC State). I looked at other bowls in the group of 6 and it seems to be about the worst hit in declining attendance. The Outback is right there with them.
I think part of the attendance problem is the teams that are being selected. Schools from up north and in the midwest in the Big 10 just don't seem to be traveling to Florida for bowls. Plus you have teams like Miss St in the SEC that don't seem to travel well judging by poor crowds at both Florida bowls in recent years.
A surprise is A&M with 2 of the worst attended bowl games (for those bowls) ever the last 2 years with 32,784 at the Belk Bowl against Wake Forest and 38,206 at the Gator Bowl against NC State. Seems crazy with their following.
By the way, the Gator Bowl seems to be trending downward. The past 3 years the attendance there has been 43,102 (Georgia Tech/Kentucky), 41,310 (Mississippi St/Louisville), and 38,206 (Texas A&M/NC State). I looked at other bowls in the group of 6 and it seems to be about the worst hit in declining attendance. The Outback is right there with them.
I think part of the attendance problem is the teams that are being selected. Schools from up north and in the midwest in the Big 10 just don't seem to be traveling to Florida for bowls. Plus you have teams like Miss St in the SEC that don't seem to travel well judging by poor crowds at both Florida bowls in recent years.
A surprise is A&M with 2 of the worst attended bowl games (for those bowls) ever the last 2 years with 32,784 at the Belk Bowl against Wake Forest and 38,206 at the Gator Bowl against NC State. Seems crazy with their following.
I disagree with a few of these points. IU would travel very well to Jacksonville or to Nashville. This is their best team in a generation. They don't show up very well at home, but I imagine that they will bring quite a few fans to a bowl game. And they hate Kentucky, so they would like to show up and try and beat us in SOMETHING.
Also, many of the big 10 teams will travel well to Florida. There was a huge Penn state turnout against UK last year (they had at least as many fans as we did and we have 25,000). Iowa always takes a ton of fans to Florida, as does wisconsin.
IU football registers about a zero for me on the excitement scale.
I have never watched an IU football game and have zero desire to ever do so.
I would rather have a shot at beating an ACC team since I live in Louisville
I have never watched an IU football game and have zero desire to ever do so.
I would rather have a shot at beating an ACC team since I live in Louisville
Of course Penn State had a great turnout. They have a national fan base. Indiana has only a local fan base. I doubt they would have very many fans. UK is just crazy in their support of any team sport. Others lesser powers just do not get into as much as we do. period. I am talking about average to below average football powers, and Indiana is in the below to average program. IMO.
There could be a number of reasons we see the decline. Perhaps, A&M’s fan base doesn’t want to travel and spend a ton of money for a 7/8 win team. I don’t know the feelings of their fan base, but they might be unhappy with how things are going.
I think that the diminishing value of bowl games are more of a driving factor though. The bowls don’t seem to matter much anymore. I certainly see why families wouldn’t want to drop $1-2k to go to a bowl game and go somewhere else. If you’re not in the playoff or NY6, the bowl game doesn’t really matter for the most part. There might be a handful of other bowls that draw excitement. For example, our Citrus Bowl was different considering it was an historic season for us. I think bowl enthusiasm is going down, at least in terms of attendance.
Playing Va tech or Pitt does nothing for me .
I think it all started when players started skipping bowl games. Fans where like, they don't care, why should we.
Sorry, but Indiana does not have a small fanbase. They're not UL. I've been to NCAA games (notably in ATL in 2012) where we had the better team but their fans actually outnumbered us in the Georgia Dome. Now, it remains to be seen if they travel in those numbers for football but i am guessing that they will.
You are talking about basketball, where they think they are still relevant. I live in Indianapolis and have seen that they have run TV ads and billboards to sell seats to their small (52K) football stadium. They only get excited about one game, the Purdue game. It looks like their coach is for real, which means he will get picked up by a real football school.
I understand, but in the end, people like a winner. IU has a big fanbase. I think they show for the bowl game. If they have less than 20,000 at the bowl, I'll show up and admit that I was wrong.
I sure hope so asi think the Belk Bowl against either of those opponents would be best—and fantastic! I prefer that over Gator Bowl!
I am 100% in for this match up. I love Jacksonville and the night before the game with fireworks over the St Johns River is a sight to see. Let's do it.
This is a good point. If Lynn Bowden or any UK player decided to sit it out no way I spend money to go see UK play in a bowl. But Lynn would never do that because he loves football and UK much to much to pull a stunt like that.
The map in this link may give you a better idea of just how big IU's football fanbase isn't.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/upshot/ncaa-football-fan-map.html
Also, interesting observation about the 2012 game in Atlanta. I was there, and we had at least 2x as many fans. Maybe red stands out more than blue.
Damn, and all this time i thought we where discussing football fan base. For example in the opposite direction, Penn State has a national following in football, so they have a following in basketball right ???? UK is one of a few schools that follow their team in both sports. Bama ? LOL, nope. LSU, not hardly. Clemson ? Nope. try and name one school that follows football and basketball combined like UK does. Maybe a school like Texas, maybe Oregon (Nike).
No, you are absolutely right. Florida won the BB NC in 2006 & 2007 and won the College World Series (baseball) in 2017, yet all their fan base cares about is football. Now, Miss State and LSU both draw HUGE crowds to their baseball games so they DO have a 2 sport fan base, it's just not basketball that is one of them.
No WAY did we have 2X as many fans as they did in 2012. That's just silly. At best, it was a push.
