UGA, Tech no boon for bowl attendance
Tack on this sad footnote to Georgia and Georgia Tech's forgettable 2010 seasons:
They played in the two bowls with the biggest attendance drops.
Georgia's 10-6 loss to Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis drew 51,231, a decrease of 11,511 from Arkansas-East Carolina in 2009, according to a report in The Town Talk of Alexandria, La.
Tech's 14-7 loss to Air Force in the Independence Bowl, in Shreveport, La., attracted 39,362, a drop of 10,291 from Georgia-Texas A&M in 2009.
The Independence Bowl's executive director, Missy Setters, told the newspaper the 2009 game was "a dream matchup" pitting programs with strong traditions and large fan bases that are relatively close to Shreveport.
"I think you're coming off a dream matchup from last year, so it's kind of difficult to compare," Setters told the paper.
Overall, though, bowl attendance increased by 0.83 percent, according to the report. The study did not factor in the national championship game because it rotates.
The Sugar Bowl, featuring Ohio State and Arkansas, saw one of the bigger increases. A standing-room-only crowd of 73,879 saw the Buckeyes hold on for a 31-26 win at the Louisiana Superdome. That was 8,672 more than the bowl drew for Florida-Cincinnati a year earlier.
The Rose Bowl, a 21-19 win for TCU over Wisconsin, drew the largest crowd, 94,118.
