The Iowa State football team finished the 2009 regular season with a record of 6-6. Missouri was 8-4. Despite that, the Insight Bowl chose the Cyclones over the Tigers due to economic reasons, which speaks volumes for the reputation of Iowa State’s fan-base.
The Cyclones caught a break in this one. After today’s Insight Bowl press conference, a handful of reporters spoke with Iowa State’s athletic director. Here are some of the comments that Pollard made concerning the selection.
On how the selection process worked out with Iowa State getting picked over Missouri… “In a perfect world, we’d like it to get picked in order of finish. But, I am a realist. The reality of it is that we’ve taken a lot of money, as a league and leagues around the country from the bowls and much like television, we take money from all of the television producers and with that comes their right to pick as they so choose. This is a time that Iowa State added tremendous value to the Big 12 because the Tempe area, with the economy, needs a team that can bring the type of people we will bring.”
Will this bring any kind of change in the Big 12’s bowl selection process? “I have no idea. I think that the day we try to mandate on the bowls and who they have to take is the day that they’ll stop paying what they pay. When they stop paying what they pay, there will be other repercussions down the road as far as how we finance college athletics.”
