Originally Posted by
HogDawg
Pretty fair analysis. The biggest exception missing from this story is the fact that Tech was only asking for 24 hours to let some other games play out. The Indy Bowl was under no pressure to have a commitment from Tech that Friday, especially since a lot of games were still to be played the following Saturday. The eventual invitee --an Ohio team who had lost 4 of its' last 5 games-- wasn't going anywhere. No one else was inviting Ohio to a bowl. Why the rush? Furthermore, literally no one in the Indy Bowl's orbit --including football fans in north Louisiana, players from ULM, etc..-- wanted to see Ohio play in the north Louisiana based bowl instead of LA Tech, except for maybe the embittered Indy Bowl committee who was apparently pissed that Tech had asked for 24 hours. The net result was that the Indy Bowl game sucked terribly that year, and attendance was horrible.
The Indy Bowl Committee made three (3) mistakes:
1) Inviting Ohio, a team who had lost 4 of its' last 5 games, was absurd. The team had no fan base in north Louisiana, and no national appeal whatsoever.
2) Inviting an 8-4 ULM was absurd too, if they expected to get LA Tech. As residents of north Louisiana, the Indy Bowl Committee members knew that a 9-3 LA Tech wanted to play someone more renowned and respected than ULM. And the Tech players and fans deserved it. After all, this was #1 offensive team in the nation.
3) Not giving LA Tech the 24 hours it asked for was simply arrogance on steroids. Had the Indy Bowl Committee been patient and let the games play out, it could have easily ended up with a LA Tech-ULM matchup after all. Instead, the Indy Bowl let its' arrogance take over and ended up with the two (2) worst bowl teams nobody wanted to see play. The final result was the 2012 Indy Bowl game was an abysmal failure. It's just one more example from a long list of mistakes that has haunted the Indy Bowl and kept it on the brink of bankruptcy for many years.