Iowa-Nebraska: The wild Insight Bowl matchup that never was

The Insight Bowl preferred Missouri as Iowa's Big 12 opponent in its game instead of Nebraska.

In similar news, citizens have said they want their taxes raised, and favor eating cauliflower rather than chocolate.

Missouri sold about half its allotments of tickets to the 2008 Alamo and 2009 Texas bowls. So come on down to Greater Phoenix, Tigers.

Why, who in their right mind would rather have Nebraska, which tends to migrate as an entire state to Cornhusker bowls?

What insights do we take from the Insight Bowl's selection process, or any other bowl's?

1. It's all kind of nutty.

2. See No. 1.

The Outback Bowl took Penn State over Iowa and Florida over South Carolina despite the facts 7-5 Iowa rolled over 7-5 Penn State and 9-4 South Carolina mauled 7-5 Florida. The Gator Bowl took 7-5 Michigan over 7-5 Iowa though the Hawkeyes beat the Wolverines in Ann Arbor and a game ahead of the Wolverines in the Big Ten standings.

But that's fine, because it's honest in a weird way. Those bowls did what they thought was best for ticket-sales and/or TV ratings. Two years ago, the Outback took 8-4 Iowa over 9-3 Northwestern though the Wildcats beat the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

As long as bowls aren't pretending they aren't about commerce first and foremost, who's to argue?

The Insight Bowl taking Missouri over Nebraska seems a little more peculiar, though.

Nebraska won the Big 12 North, defeated Missouri, and has the same number of wins as the Tigers. But the Insight chose Mizzou over the Cornhuskers even though it's indisputable that Nebraska would have brought a lot more fans to Tempe than would the Tigers.

From 10:30 Saturday night until late Sunday afternoon, the Iowa-Nebraska Insight Bowl scenario seemed so sensible that it just might happen. Put the two border-state teams together, teams that will bump heads in the Big Ten from 2011 until who knows when, and you have a lower-tier bowl with an actual compelling story to play out.

Instead, the Fiesta/Insight people opted to take the financial hit to keep their Big 12 partners happy.

For one thing, 8-4 Missouri got snubbed by the Insight last year in favor of 6-6 Iowa State. ISU made the decision look good by sending a brigade of fans to Tempe. But the Insight had a chance to but some balm on Mizzou's hurt feelings this year, and did.

More importantly, you know the Big 12 wouldn't have relished an “All-Big Ten” matchup of Nebraska and Iowa at one of its bowls.

You're the Big 12 and you have a national TV audience (at least the national audience watching a game that starts at 10 p.m., Eastern time), reminded 417 times over three hours that Nebraska will be in the Big Ten next year with Iowa and its friends.

That's not what the Big 12 wants from one of its bowls. That's not a Big 12 showcase. That's a promotion for the Big Ten and nothing but the Big Ten, and the Fiesta/Insight people knew it and were sensitive to it.

But what they also knew is that they would be sacrificing major blocks of unsold tickets and tourism dollars by going with spurning the Huskers. In this economy, it's hard to imagine a bowl doing so. Incredible, in fact.

The Insight Bowl bulked its team-payouts from $1.2 million to $3.25 million per team this year to move up the pecking orders of the Big Ten and Big 12. Better teams, better matchups. Having mediocre Minnesota teams in three of the previous four Insight Bowls wasn't cutting it.

So in Year 1 of the new deal, the Insight took a Missouri team that it passed on last year? This wasn't Missouri over Texas Tech or Baylor. This was Missouri over Nebraska.

Which is fine with Iowa, I'm sure. In a new twist, the Hawkeyes will go to Arizona as the virtual home team.

Look, this is the Insight Bowl, after all. It isn't exactly packed with prestige and tradition. Besides, maybe Iowa-Missouri will be interesting and fun.

But Iowa-Nebraska at a neutral site would have been wild.