IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan announced Sunday evening that the Hoosier football team has broken the streak—they will play 13 games this year. On December 31, the team will take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Insight Bowl, held in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The Cowboys finished the season 6-6 (4-4 in the Big 12) while the Hoosiers finished 7-5 (3-5 in the Big Ten).
Bryan Payton and the Hoosiers are looking to run over Oklahoma State.
While it is a long trip out to Arizona, the athletics department is making the trip a little easier on students’ wallets. Each student has the ability to reserve one free ticket, if done by Dec. 15. That ticket can then be picked up at the game with a valid student ID. Non-students can purchase tickets by calling 1-866-IUSPORTS for the cost of $55 per person. While it is unlikely that Sun Devil Stadium (which has a capacity of 73,752) will fill up, the athletics department is urging fans to order tickets as quickly as possibly. For those without the desire or the cash to go to the game, it will be aired on the NFL Network.
Indiana has played in the bowl before, when it was known as the Copper Bowl. In fact, the Hoosiers have the only shutout ever recorded in the bowl’s history, a 24-0 win over Baylor in 1991. IU has also played Oklahoma State before, a meeting in 1930 that ended in a 7-7 tie. It is the first time Indiana has taken on a Big 12 team since beating Missouri in 1992.
Coach Bill Lynch is the first Hoosier coach to take a team to a bowl in his first season. But his accomplish is overshadowed by another coach—the late Terry Hoeppner. The motivation for many on the team and for many Hoosiers fans was to fulfill Hoeppner’s dream of “playing 13”, the idea of making it to a bowl game. IU locked-up a bowl bid with an emotional win over Purdue to end the season. Let’s hope that Hoosier Nation shows up in large numbers and that IU has a good showing in their first bowl game since 1993.
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