Penn State Ticket City Bowl: Why Ticket City Bowl Selection Makes Lots of Sense

It's official. Penn State is facing off against Houston in the 2011 Ticket City Bowl.  

While a majority of Penn State fans are irate that they were passed over by the Insight Bowl selection committee for the 7-5 Iowa Hawkeyes, the same team that lost to Penn state earlier in the year, I think it makes perfect sense. Here's why.

Whether or not Penn State fans want to admit it, the reputation of their beloved school has been tarnished, at least for this and the next few seasons. There is no way that the bowl selection committee of the Insight Bowl could overlook what is alleged to have transpired at Penn State, and that is one of the main reasons why I'm sure they stayed away from Penn State.

As a college football fan, I hate to admit this, but bowl matchups are in large part about marketing and money. When bowl selection committees looked at Penn State, they didn't see the nationally ranked defense, the top 25 ranking or the 9-3 overall record. What selection committees saw was the potential of sending the wrong message about their bowl and the companies that sponsor and pay for it by inviting Penn State.

The topic of the alleged sexual abuse and how it was handled at Penn State is a polarizing topic amongst the general public, and that is most likely the main reason why Penn State isn't playing in the Insight Bowl. The Insight Bowl and its sponsors didn't want to risk defacing their image by associating themselves with Penn State's football program, and that was a smart move on their part.

Any other year, the Insight Bowl selection committee would have been salivating at the possibility of a Penn State and Oklahoma matchup. With the growing legacy and history of the Insight Bowl, the selection committee knew that the potential backlash from selecting Penn State was too big of a risk to take.  

The Iowa Hawkeyes are known to have a fanbase that travels as well as, if not better, than Penn State's fanbase, as evidenced by their showing at the 2010 Orange Bowl that looked like an Iowa home game.

The Insight Bowl may not have selected the best game for themselves, but they did select a matchup that will undoubtedly fill the seats and provide a big enough audience to satisfy their sponsors. The Insight Bowl undoubtedly made the right choice by passing on Penn State, and so did  the Ticket City Bowl by selecting them.

The Ticket City Bowl is in its infancy. In only its second year in existence after replacing the infamous Cotton Bowl in 2010, the Ticket City Bowl is looking for a matchup that draws as much national attention as they can get. Making the selection of Penn State has done just that.

Last year's Ticket City Bowl matchup was Northwestern against Texas Tech, which turned out to be a competitive game. There is no doubting though that the matchup of the 21st-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions against the 19th-ranked Houston Cougars is a major upgrade for the fledgling Ticket City Bowl.

By selecting Penn State, the Ticket City Bowl all but guaranteed themselves a packed house based on the avid PSU fanbase and an incredible amount of national attention thanks to the scandal at Penn State.  

Penn State isn't the only team bringing national attention to the game, however. The Houston Cougars will undoubtedly bring their "we should have been in a BCS game" mentality into the game, even though they lost to Southern Mississippi in the C-USA championship game, and that will create an interesting environment.

When you take away the non-household name of "Ticket City Bowl" and look purely at the matchup of Penn State against Houston, you have the potential for one of the best bowl matchups of the season, and that is what Penn State fans must focus on.

The Ticket City Bowl is a good bowl to play in, and at least this year, it has produced a matchup that has the potential to create a classic matchup of an electric offense against one of the nation's toughest defenses.

Penn State and its fans are not thrilled to be playing in a bowl game they've never heard of, especially after a 9-3 season where they went 6-2 in Big Ten play. While the decision on part of the Insight Bowl isn't necessarily fair when based solely on football statistics, it is undoubtedly the right decision.

Right now, it might seem like Penn State got slighted by the Insight Bowl, but after the dust settles, I truly believe the Ticket City Bowl will produce the more memorable matchup.

Penn State needs to start rebuilding, and that process can be helped by accepting their place in the Ticket City Bowl and beating a near BCS buster in the Houston Cougars.