Insight Bowl? Oklahoma couldn't sell Fiesta Bowl tickets last year

Don't look for a sea of crimson and cream in the Phoenix area during the week of the Insight Bowl.

Oklahoma played in the much-more prestigious Fiesta Bowl in greater Phoenix last year. It was on the hook for 17,500 tickets with the BCS bowl. It sold 5,567 for the game against Connecticut in a matchup no one was all that hot to see.

Without help from the Big 12, Oklahoma would have lost almost $1.9 million on the trip. Of course, Big 12 schools help subsidize other Big 12 schools who can't sell all their bowl tickets, so OU had its share of helping to eat other schools' unsold tickets.

Now, the Sooners are playing Iowa in the Dec. 30 Insight Bowl in Tempe. Good luck moving those 11,000 tickets. Four days ago, OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione said about 6,000 of those had been bought. Iowa reportedly has sold a little bit more than that.

Iowa didn't sell 6,745 of the 11,000 tickets it was required to purchase to participate in the Insight Bowl, yet reported a $382,500 surplus from its Insight Bowl trip last year. That didn't take into account the $494,861 it paid out in bonuses to its football staff for qualifying for a bowl. Nor did it take into account Iowa's one-eleventh share of losses from the unsold bowl tickets of other Big Ten schools. That was $361,171.

Iowa spent 10 days at the Insight Bowl, and had 651 people travel in some capacity. The Hawkeyes are leaving on Dec. 22 for this year's Dec. 30 game. Oklahoma is departing for Arizona on Dec. 25.