While students and athletes were at home celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, the Wisconsin football team learned of their travel plans for winter break. The Badgers accepted an invitation to play in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. on Dec. 31.
\I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to play in the Music City Bowl,"" said Head Coach Barry Alvarez. ""I've heard a lot of great things about the city and the bowl itself, the hospitality and how they treat the players. In talking to them it sounds as though we'll have a quality opponent.""
""A new destination, a relatively close destination, a good opponent..."" Alvarez added. ""I just felt this was the right one for us this year and the way the season played out, especially the timing of the announcement is excellent.""
Although the Badgers lost any opportunity of playing in a New Year's Day bowl game with their 27-21 loss against Iowa in the regular season finale, they will still be playing on one of the more respected college football days of the year as the game kicks off Dec. 31 at 11 a.m. The game will take place at the home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
Wisconsin's opponent has not been named yet, but it will be a team from the Southeastern Conference. At this point it appears as though the two most likely opponents are Arkansas, 8-4, or Auburn, 7-5.
""[Auburn and Arkansas] are both quality opponents,"" said senior linebacker Jeff Mack. ""I like the way Auburn plays. I have watched them a number of times on TV and Arkansas too. If I'm not mistaken, I know they were in the top 10 sometime this year, so they're a quality opponent. We'll be excited. It will be a fun game.""
With the Badgers' season now extended by more than a month, UW will have plenty of time to get a better look at some of the younger players. The added practice time for the underclassmen will also be a tremendous bonus for Wisconsin as they will be able to get a significant amount of repetitions in before the season comes to a close.
""It obviously gives us an opportunity to get some extra work with our younger players and help develop them,"" Alvarez said. ""We try to use this time as an additional spring practice. We have a tentative schedule set already and we're really looking forward to it.""
With Wisconsin penciled into the Music City Bowl at such an early date, Badger fans will have no trouble planning their trip to Nashville. The shorter travel distance compared to last year's Alamo Bowl in San Antonio will allow for easier and more feasible traveling conditions, something Alvarez hopes will help bring a large number of Wisconsin fans to Nashville.??
""Ideally, you would like to get in the neighborhood of 15,000 [fans at the game]"" said UW Athletic Director Pat Richter. ""...Here you've got so many people coming from within a six-, eight-, 10-, 12-hour range that maybe couldn't get to other bowl games. I think this one will be accessible to them.\
