Bowl ticket allocations down for the Big Ten

IOWA CITY - Unsold bowl tickets cost the Big Ten and its member programs nearly $4.5 million after last year's postseason. To combat those numbers, Big Ten schools will receive a fewer bowl tickets coupled with smaller payouts this year.

Big Ten squads that advance to one of the New Year's Six primary bowl games, including the national semifinals, will receive 13,000 tickets. That's down from 17,500 last year. Those bowls include the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach.

The school competing in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, known last year as the Capital One Bowl, receives 9,000 tickets. Last year Wisconsin received 12,500. The Outback allotment is 8,500, down from 11,500. The Taxslayer Bowl, previously known as the Gator Bowl, allocates 6,000 tickets, which is down from 12,750. The Heart of Dallas Bowl remains the same (6,000) and the Detroit-based bowl requires no ticket commitment after allocating 5,000 last year.

The allocation numbers for this year's potential Big Ten bowl games:

National title game - 20,000

New Year's Six bowls - 13,000

Citrus Bowl - 9,000

Outback - 8,500

Holiday - 6,000

Taxslayer - 6,000

Music City - 6,000

Pinstripe - 7,500

Foster Farms - 7,500

Quick Lane - 0

Heart of Dallas - 6,000

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