Insight Bowl loves Iowa State’s approach

Iowa State’s football team will play in the 2009 Insight Bowl on New Year’s Eve against Minnesota. One of the major stories surrounding this game is the fact that the 6-6 Cyclones were chosen over an 8-4 Missouri team, based largely off of Iowa State’s great reputation for fans traveling in December.

Shortly after the announcement on Sunday, Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard and head coach Paul Rhoads sent out a letter to Cyclone fans encouraging them to support the program and purchase tickets to the game.

“If you are unable to attend the bowl, please consider purchasing tickets to help us build on our already outstanding bowl reputation,” part of the letter said. “The number of tickets that an institution sells strongly affects future bowl selections. Tickets are only $55 each and we will help distribute any unused tickets to local charities and/or members of our student body.”

During today’s Insight Bowl press conference, CycloneFanatic.com caught up with one of the game’s representatives, Mike Maraco. According to Maraco, the Insight Bowl was thrilled when they saw that quote up on Iowa State’s official website, www.cyclones.com.

“When we found out that the website had on there that if you buy tickets but you can’t make it and that you (Iowa State) would donate them to charity, we thought that was the greatest idea ever because no school has ever taken advantage of that,” Maraco said. “For us, we were like ‘wow, somebody gets it.’ That is great. There are so many people who can’t go to a game and who are less fortunate. If people from Iowa can’t get to Phoenix, what a better way to support the program but at the same time, donate to charity. It is phenomenal.”

If you’d still like to purchase tickets to the 2009 Insight Bowl, CLICK HERE.