Iowa AD Gary Barta: 4 bowls remain a possibility

IOWA CITY - Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said Tuesday night he's had contact with officials from four bowls regarding a possible postseason destination for the football program.

"When we went into last weekend there were four bowls in play, I thought: the Insight Bowl, the Gator Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl and the TicketCity Bowl," Barta said. "As of today, they're all still in play.

"I talked to all of them last week, and I talked to all of them this week, and we'll stay in constant contact. Obviously any one of them will be fine with us. We'd be excited to come."

The Hawkeyes (7-5) played at the Insight Bowl last year, but that doesn't seem to be a roadblock for either Barta or for bowl officials. Last week Gator Bowl President Rick Catlett told the Orlando Sentinel he wanted to pair 6-6 Ohio State with 6-6 Florida.

"I've talked with Rick a couple of times last week, and we've exchanged some voicemails this week," Barta said. "The conversations are that we're still both interested, we'll see where it goes."

"I don't want to say that one bowl is more interested than any other. I would say at this point we're all having great conversations with all four of them. It's just hard to predict where we're going to end up."

Barta said it's too early to predict which bowl will select Iowa, primarily because of Michigan's tenuous Bowl Championship Series status. Michigan (10-2) ranks 16th in the latest BCS poll and must move to 14th in order to earn a Fiesta Bowl or Sugar Bowl berth. The Big Ten's inaugural title game between Wisconsin and Michigan State also impacts the Big Ten's bowl selection order.

"I think at this point, prior to Saturday, everybody's still trying to feel each other out," Barta said. "Understand what I try to do is remind everyone what we bring in terms of fan support, television ratings. I look back to last year at Insight Bowl and I use that as an example."

Iowa beat Missouri 27-24 last year and set the 23-year-old Insight Bowl attendance record with 53, 453 tickets sold, breaking the previous mark by more than 4,300. The 2.24 television rating was the bowl's highest in five years despite a 9 p.m. Central kickoff time. Last year's game was televised by ESPN, unlike the four previous Insight Bowls.