The Indiana football program is set to take on the Tennessee Volunteers in the 2019 Gator Bowl, which is expected to have a sellout crowd.
It has been three years since the Indiana football program has traveled to a bowl game, and with the Hoosiers looking for just their fourth bowl victory in program history, and first since 1991, you could have already fully expected the Indiana crowd to follow.
After receiving news that the Hoosiers would be in Jacksonville, for the 2019 TaxSlayor Gator Bowl, there have been even more Indiana fans expected to attend. Yes, it will be a great venue with the great Florida weather contributing, but also helping is the fact that 23 current IU players on the roster are Florida natives.
On Tuesday, the Gator Bowl CEO Rick Catlett talked about the matchup and gave an update on what to expect crowd wise.
"“When the SEC called us and said, ‘OK, you got Tennessee,’ it’s been a long time since we’ve had a big ‘Yeah, let’s go!’ kind of moment,” Catlett said. “The problem with having 43 bowl games is that teams and their fans go to bowl games every year. And in this case, we had two teams that have some pent-up demand, have not gone to a bowl game in a couple of years. I think that would be a factor that plays into (attendance).”"
What will that mean for attendance? Catlett said he expects there to be a sellout crowd on January 2 when the two teams take the field. The stadium capacity of TIAA Bank Field is listed at 67,814 and hasn’t had a sellout crowd since the 2010 matchup of Florida State and West Virginia.
For a program in Indiana which is coming off of its best season in 26 years, the fanbase will not only be hungry to celebrate a bowl win to cap off the great year, but will also be looking to get a nice win over a Tennessee program that comes from the SEC, a conference that believes it is above everyone else.
The 2019 TaxSlayor Gator Bowl will take place on January 2 at 7:00 pm.