Monday's game between Indiana and Oklahoma State in the Insight Bowl has left some Hoosiers fans scrambling to find either tickets or a sports bar that will be showing the game.
The game will be carried on the NFL Network (6 p.m. ET), but not all households with cable get that channel.
Indianapolis FOX affiliate WXIN worked out an agreement with the NFL Network to air the game in its broadcast area, but many cream and crimson-clad fans in other parts of the state are looking for other places to watch the game.
"We don't normally get many IU football fans, but we have 31 screens and the game will be on many of them," said Rodney Metz, manager of the Fox and Hound in Evansville.
IU officials expect about 8,200 fans to make the journey to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., said assistant athletic director Frank Cuervo.
That includes more than 950 IU students who accepted the school's offer of a free ticket to the game if they can get to Tempe. Students will be able to pick up one ticket apiece at the will-call window - a handling method aimed at limiting ticket scalping.
"We're pleased with the turnout. Our fans certainly have stepped up," Cuervo said.
IU was allotted 10,500 Insight Bowl tickets and Oklahoma State fans snatched up 5,000 tickets.
Evansville attorney Pat Shoulders, who's a member of IU's board of trustees, is one of the lucky ones who got a ticket. Shoulders will be master of ceremonies at the pre-game pep rally in Tempe, in front of perhaps 8,000 IU fans, the marching band and Gov. Mitch Daniels.
"I'm absolutely thrilled ... it's (pure) storybook. 'Let's win one for Hep,"' said Shoulders, referring to late Indiana football coach Terry Hoeppner, who died of cancer in June.
Indiana, 7-5 and now coached by Bill Lynch, is a four-point underdog and hasn't played in the postseason since 1993, when it lost to Virginia Tech in the Independence Bowl.
Bragging rights in the game's outcome are at stake for Posey County Circuit Judge Jim Redwine, an Oklahoma native who moved to Indiana in 1963 to attend IU.
Two of his brothers and a sister-in-law are OSU grads.
"Whoever wins, the (loser) has to sing the other school's fight song," chuckled Redwine, who has the NFL Network and will watch the game at home with his wife, Peg.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
