Outback Bowl Was Top Non-BCS Bowl

Penn State propaganda apparatchik Jeff Nelson has revealed that the 2011 Outback Bowl featuring the University of Florida Gators and the Penn State Nittany Lions had the fourth greatest television audience among all 35 bowl games this season. The only three games drawing higher ratings were the BCS SSMNC game, the Rose Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. The Outback Bowl’s 7.1 rating on ABC was a 101 per cent improvement over last year’s game, in which Auburn beat Northwestern 38-35 in an exciting overtime game.

The Nittany Lions have a huge fan base, and that helps get their bowl games upgraded. As we all know, bowl games are about money, not about college football. Unlike coaching (see yesterday’s diatribe), there are no “deserve-tos” in the big money bowl arena. Getting Penn State and the home state Gators, too, was a dream match-up for the Outback Bowl sponsors and for ESPN/ABC.

Now, if I were a conspiracy theorist, I would conclude that all those rampant “Paterno’s final game” rumors that were cranked up in December came from ESPN/ABC’s plants on the message boards. What a way to pump up the ratings. Who would want to miss Joe Paterno’s final game?