Morning Line Holiday Pick? Try Hawkeyes

If the University of Iowa defeats visiting Purdue today, the Hawkeyes will play in the Holiday Bowl Dec. 30 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, according to an Iowa official who asked not to be named.

Eight bowls originally planned to send representatives to today’s game, but Friday night only the Holiday and Gator bowl planned to send representatives, according to Iowa spokesman George Wine.

“We are definitely high on (the Holiday Bowl’s) list and they are high on ours,” said Steve Malchow, University of Iowa assitant sports information director.

Tom Starr, executive director of the Freedom Bowl, said earlier Friday that Iowa (6-3) would be the top candidate in San Diego, although bowl invitations cannot officially be extended until next Saturday. Starr monitors other bowls because their selections influence available teams for his bowl.

“At this point, there is a strong, strong indication (that Iowa will play in the Holiday Bowl),” Starr said.

Iowa would figure to be a strong draw. Iowa fans quickly purchased the allotment of 20,000 tickets for last season’s Rose Bowl game, a 45-29 loss to UCLA. Malchow said Iowa fans would have an added incentive to travel to San Diego for the Holdiay Bowl because the Iowa basketball team will be playing in the Anteater Classic at UC Irvine Dec. 28-29.

“The fans would love that,” Malchow said. “If the (Holiday Bowl deal) works out, that would be a nice week for our fans.”

John Reid, executive director of the Holiday Bowl, will attend today’s Purdue-Iowa game in Iowa City. He was unavailable for comment Friday night.

The bowls canceling scouting trips to the Iowa-Purdue game were the All-American, Bluebonnet, Citrus, Liberty, Sun and Hall of Fame.

Why did the Gator Bowl persist?

“Evidently, the news doesn’t travel real fast to that part of the country,” Wine, Iowa’s sports information director, told the Des Moines Register.

Malchow warned that it would be “premature” for any bowl to reach an agreement with Iowa, since two games remain in the season.

“I don’t remember having a bowl bid locked up with two weeks still to go in the season,” Malchow said.

Iowa’s 31-10 loss to Ohio State two weeks ago eliminated the Hawkeyes from the Big Ten title chase. Michigan and Ohio State, both unbeaten in Big Ten play, meet in Columbus next Saturday, to decide the conference championship.