New Mexico Bowl; Arizona and Nevada have sold a combined 2,000 tickets through their ticket offices: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/sports/small-crowd-expected-at-new-mexico-bowl

Nevada had to buy 10,000 tickets. They say they may only use about a thousand of those, and that is after giving tickets away to New Mexico military families.That is about 9,000 empty seats right there.
Their opponent Saturday, the University of Arizona, is on the hook for 5,000 tickets but has only sold about a thousand of them.

Toledo has sold 300 tickets for the Idaho Potato Bowl:
http://www.toledoblade.com/UT/2012/12/13/Lack-of-Famous-Idaho-Potato-Bowl-ticket-sales-not-concerning-to-Toledo-Rockets.html

The school has sold only about 300 tickets for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, a minuscule number that reflects myriad burdens Rockets fans encountered — and apparently could not overcome — after learning of their team’s postseason assignment less than two weeks prior to the game.

Minnesota, Michigan State, Purdue and Nebraska all lagging:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/183447871.html?refer=y

As of Wednesday, Minnesota had sold about 2,000 tickets to the Dec. 28 game in Houston ...

... But the Gophers' slow sales are mirrored around the league, after a mostly disappointing Big Ten season. Michigan State, for instance, is at roughly 2,000 tickets sold for its Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl matchup against Texas Christian in Tempe, leaving it with another 9,000 tickets on hand. Purdue was required to buy just 6,000 seats to its Heart of Dallas matchup with Oklahoma State, but has moved only 2,500, according to the Lafayette Journal and Courier.

Nebraska might be the most disappointing Big Ten bowl participant. Cornhuskers fans had expected to be headed to the Rose Bowl, but a 70-31 rout in the Big Ten championship game dropped them into the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. The result, according to the Orlando Sentinel, has been fewer than 4,000 tickets sold out of Nebraska's allotment of 12,500.

Too many games? Poor locations? Online ticket resellers hurting sales through schools? All of the above? Regardless, expect a lot of empty seats on your TV for this year's games.

Too many games and poor locations is my bet. Toledo played in the Music City Bowl while I was there, and as a poor college student I was satified watching them on TV vs. paying a bunch of money for travel, tickets, and hotel.

Benny The Jet;1342695 wrote:Too many games and poor locations is my bet. Toledo played in the Music City Bowl while I was there, and as a poor college student I was satified watching them on TV vs. paying a bunch of money for travel, tickets, and hotel.

This about sums it up. It's hard to beat HD televisions these days especially when you factor in the cost.

Who wants to go to Idaho in December?

LSU vs Clemson tickets are under face. Was thinking about going. Im sure they will drop more after Christmas.

WAY too many bowls.

ernest_t_bass;1343104 wrote:WAY too many bowls.

Yeah. I'd have to say early 2000's was when we had it right, 27 bowls is much more manageable than the current 35. Also the BCS just needs to select the title game, let the Orange, Sugar, Rose and Fiesta pick their own teams with minimal rules. The BCS bowls in recent years have been absolutely horrible

Traditional fan bases that travel like OSU and PSU and to some extent Iowa, are not in bowls.

ccrunner609;1343254 wrote:give the team with a higher BCS rank a home game and you sell out.

I absolutely agree with this, but you'll never convince the all mighty SEC to come north to play a game. They're stinkin "neutral site" game is played in Dallas...real neutral

Benny The Jet;1343374 wrote:I absolutely agree with this, but you'll never convince the all mighty SEC to come north to play a game. They're stinkin "neutral site" game is played in Dallas...real neutral

Only bad thing is an up north school is rarely ranked ahead of an SEC school in the final BCS poll.

Florida not selling tickets either. Only sold 6,500 of their 17,000 they're required to bye.

Northern Illinois has sold 1,500 more then FSU.

Florida has struggled selling tickets at home too. Watched a few games where there were thousands of empty seats

Trueblue23;1343517 wrote:Only bad thing is an up north school is rarely ranked ahead of an SEC school in the final BCS poll.

Good point

I agree that there are too many bowls and match ups just really aren't intriguing even in some of the BCS games.

I think the B1G schools struggling to sell tickets will be good for the health of the conference as that's the fans sending a message that they weren't happy with the way the schools have been performing lately.

Maybe if they had a big playoff system...or have every bowl game go 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, thru out the whole top 25- play.
Tired of bowl tie-ins and sites picking the teams. Play games where the teams match up really good.

Just go to a 16 team playoff with every game played at the highest seed's home field and play the championship game at a neutral field. And yes, every game would still matter and it would matter for more teams throughout the year.

There is no need to have all these bowl games with a bunch of empty seats and bad tv ratings.

Benny The Jet;1343374 wrote:I absolutely agree with this, but you'll never convince the all mighty SEC to come north to play a game. They're stinkin "neutral site" game is played in Dallas...real neutral

The bowl sites/committees, most of the sponsors, and every BCS conference (this includes the B1G) would NEVER allow most of the bowl structure to change. All moving them north does is give fans a new excuse to not go (absolute shit weather)

jordo212000;1342731 wrote:Who wants to go to Idaho in December?

http://www.hustlebelt.com/2011/12/5/2612367/paul-hershey-idaho-potato-bowl-tweet

I dont want fewer bowls. I like watching college football too much.

georgemc80;1343251 wrote:Traditional fan bases that travel like OSU and PSU and to some extent Iowa, are not in bowls.

Nebraska's fans travel as well as any fanbase in the country. The problem is a combination of fans already traveling to LA (UCLA) this year. Half the stadium was red. They also skipped out on the pricey conf title game probably expecting to go to the Rose Bowl. Their option now is going to Orlando (which many went to Orlando last year for their bowl game) to watch their team who just gave up 70 points play a team that was one play away from a national title game. Not to mention flights/hotels are the highest they have been in a long time.