ON THEIR WAY TO WATCH THE SEC PLAYSeveral league schools wasted no time in selling out their allotment of bowl tickets:SCHOOL / BOWL / ALLOTMENT / SOLD*Alabama/ Capital One/ 12,500 /12,500Arkansas/ Sugar / 17,500 / 17,500Auburn/ BCS title /17,000 /17,000Florida/ Outback/ 12,000 /11,900Georgia/ Liberty /10,000 /4,500Kentucky / Compass /10,000 /N/ALSU / Cotton/ 12,500 /12,500Mississippi State/ Gator / 15,000 / 15,000South Carolina / Chick-fil-A /16,000 / 14,800Tennessee / Music City/16,000 / 16,000* Estimated totals as of Monday, according to the SEC schools
The Arkansas Razorbacks are taking big numbers to the Big Easy.
Arkansas won its final six football games to finish a regular season ranked in the top 10 for the first time since its days in the Southwest Conference. The Razorbacks were selected Dec. 5 to play Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, and the phones haven’t stopped ringing.
“As expected, the demand for tickets to the Allstate Sugar Bowl was far greater than the tickets we were allotted by the bowl,” Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long said.
Arkansas was allotted 17,500 tickets to the Jan. 4 matchup in New Orleans, but more than 24,000 Razorbacks fans requested tickets through the school. The Hogs aren’t alone this month in experiencing an overload, as six of the 10 Southeastern Conference schools invited to the postseason had a larger demand for tickets than what was provided.
Florida’s director of ticket operations, Mark Gajda, said Monday that its allotment of 12,000 for the Outback Bowl should be accounted for today, making seven SEC schools to meet their ticket obligations. South Carolina should make it eight very soon, as Gamecocks media relations director Steve Fink said all but 1,200 Chick-fil-A Bowl tickets out of a 16,000 allotment have been purchased.
SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom credits the brisk sales across the league to loyal fan bases and to bowl locations relatively near the 12 institutions.
“Our fans have shown they will travel when we participate in BCS bowls outside the footprint,” Bloom said, adding that Auburn quickly sold its 17,000 tickets to the BCS title game in Arizona. “The magnitude of the bowl game plays a part of it when you’re talking outside the region, but I think it goes hand in hand, especially in these tough economic times. If a multitude of our teams traveled farther distances, fans would have a tougher decision to make in terms of spending their money.”
The SEC has the most attractive postseason lineup in its history with three tie-ins to bowls in Florida and three to bowls that can be held indoors. The Sugar and Chick-fil-A bowls take place in domes, and the Cotton Bowl now has an indoor option with the retractable roof at Cowboys Stadium that can open or close in 12 minutes.
A third Florida bowl tie-in is new this season, with the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville joining the Capital One in Orlando and the Outback in Tampa. The Gator replaces the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., which now pits ACC and Mountain West teams.
The only potentially frigid options left for SEC teams are the Music City in Nashville, the Liberty in Memphis and the BBVA Compass in Birmingham, which are the last three bowls in the league’s pecking order.
“We’re also very fortunate in our scheduling, because our fans never have to travel over Christmas,” Bloom said. “Our first game is December 30th, and we have five games either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. So our fans can spend Christmas at home and then go watch their team play.”
Arkansas is in its first Sugar Bowl since the 1979 season. Mississippi State is headed to the Gator, its first bowl trip to Florida since World War II, and sold all 15,000 tickets before requesting 2,000 more.
Tennessee, which rallied from a 2-6 start to become bowl-eligible, sold 16,000 tickets to the Music City and requested another 4,000.
Despite starting the season ranked No. 1 and finishing 9-3, defending national champion Alabama had more than 16,000 requests for its 12,500 allotted tickets to the Capital One. The Crimson Tide have not played in a Florida bowl since the 1999 season and have not been to Orlando since 1994.
LSU missed out on the nearby Sugar Bowl by losing its regular-season finale at Arkansas, but the Tigers had requests for more than 15,000 Cotton Bowl tickets and were allotted 12,500.
“We sold every ticket we had to this game,” LSU director of ticket operations Brian Broussard said, “and they went quick.”
Georgia and Kentucky are the lone SEC teams that are not expected to sell their respective allotments, each of which is 10,000. Georgia had sold 4,500 Liberty Bowl tickets as of Monday, while Kentucky did not have an update available when contacted.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.