Dec. 4, 2009
By SKIP MYSLENSKI, NUsports.com Special Contributor
The calendar most-certainly said this was a day of rest, a time for inhaling aromas and stuffing the belly and lolling on the Barcalounger in front of the TV. But that hardly stopped 'Cat athletic director Jim Phillips. "My wife was so mad at me," he remembers with a smile, "because I was leaving messages for people on Thanksgiving Day, some of the bowl people. Just checking in with them, wishing them Happy Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure they knew we were thinking of them. So the university's probably not going to be happy with my cell phone bill."
The record is not the only thing. This is not a news flash when considering college football's postseason. This is also why Phillips was in full-work mode on that Thanksgiving Day and why speculation is so rife as all await Sunday and the unveiling of this year's bowl match-ups.
Florida State coach Bobby Bowden wants to close out his career in Florida and the Gator Bowl appears poised to grant him that wish, no matter that his Seminoles' record hardly merits that spot. The Outback Bowl has indicated that Auburn is its choice out of the SEC, no matter that the early line had that slot falling to Tennessee. Then, and most significantly here, there is that ACC Championship game between Georgia Tech and Clemson that goes off Saturday night in Atlanta. The winner, whom all expect to be the Yellow Jackets, gets a pass into the Orange Bowl. But the loser?
The loser could surely end up in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando -- one of the two possible places the 'Cats are expected to spend their holiday season -- and one or two of the folks who do this kind of prognosticating for a pay check think that is just what will happen. But others most-respectfully disagree and these point to Miami as the opponent the 'Cats could face in their fifth bowl game of this decade.
Any guesses, we ask Phillips just days before the answer is revealed.
"No," he says with a laugh. "The minute I say it, it won't come true."
That is how strange-and-mysterious the bowl selection process can be and why, as much as anything, the last hours before this Sunday are filled with the same speculation that surrounds Selection Sunday in March. Little is certain, very little outside of concrete tie-ins, which is just the reason Phillips is still campaigning as ardently as he did through the Saturdays of the fall. "Probably the last three weeks, since we became eligible or close to being bowl eligible, it's of greater importance to tell our story and connect with folks," he says. "So I talk to the bowls now on a daily basis and try and serve as someone who continually tells our story. It falls on my shoulders to position us to the best of my ability."
From the outside, we say to Phillips, this whole process sometimes sounds like a political campaign.
He laughs and then says: "I don't think it sounds like one. I think it probably is one."
Every Friday night before a home football game, Jim Phillips hosts a reception for donors and sponsors and bowl representatives. Some are at his home and others, at the Westmoreland Country Club. Then there is a brunch with these same people on Saturday morning and finally, at the start of the game itself, he pops up to the press box to see just the bowl reps and, he says, "Make sure they have everything they need. You're absolutely campaigning for the opportunity to come and play in their bowl. They pay a great deal of money to have the ability to select who they want. I think it's important for us to put our best foot forward and to show them the reasons why Northwestern would be a really good fit in their bowl."
He does this, he goes on, in a variety of ways. There is exposure to the product (the team) and its pieces (the players) and the choreographer of it all (coach Pat Fitzgerald). There are the TV numbers ("I think we were a 4.3 on ESPN last year against Missouri") and the number of alumni based in Florida ("I think the number's around 18,000") and the number of tickets sold by the school in bowl appearances past (from some 10,000 for the 2005 Sun Bowl to well over 26,000 for the 1996 Rose Bowl -- with aerial photos showing a vast majority of purple in the stands). There are visits with the university president and university deans and key officers of the university and there is a constant retelling of the narrative of this 'Cats season, which they finished with a rush ("That's one of the things bowl people tell you. We want to see how you're playing at the end of the year and how you're playing at the end of the year does become a factor in the selection").
There is even this.
"Daily flights. There're 158 daily flights to Tampa (where the Outback Bowl is played), it's even more to Orlando, from O'Hare and Midway."
Phillips pauses here and picks on the bowl of chili in front of him.
"The other thing I'll say," he then goes on, "is I don't think we suffer, right now, from too many bowl opportunities. We don't have the fan base that's spoiled about what bowls they go to. I can't speak for anybody else. But I know our people are really excited. They're excited about the year that we've had. They're excited about where we're potentially going. That may not be the case at every program in the country. But it is at our place right now. People are enthusiastic about what this Sunday means and the final destination. I think that will translate into people traveling and going and supporting the team at any of those venues."
There is, of course, still a very high chance that the 'Cats end up in Tampa at the Outback, which is played on the morning of the first day of the new year. But the majority of betting still sees Orlando and Champs, which kicks off unopposed by any other game on the evening of Dec. 29. "I think there are plusses to both, I really do," Jim Phillips finally says when asked his preference. "The unencumbered night, that's tremendous. Prime time. January 1. The highest viewership of college football is January 1st. That's got major dividends to it as well. If we end up in either of those games, it's win-win."