Joe Rexrode

Michigan.com

EAST LANSING – A year ago, Michigan State fans infiltrated Stanford's Rose Bowl ticket allotment to satisfy soaring demand, resulting in an estimated 60,000 green-clad spectators in the 92,542-seat stadium for MSU's 24-20 win.

This year, Baylor may end up doing the same thing to MSU. The MSU ticket office had sold about 6,000 of its allotment of 13,000 tickets for the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl as of the end of business Thursday, a day after opening things to the general public.

"We're struggling somewhat on ticket sales," MSU athletic director Mark Hollis told the Free Press of the most significant bowl matchup outside of the four-team playoff – the No. 4 Bears (11-1) against the No. 7 Spartans (10-2) at 12:30 p.m. New Year's Day (ESPN) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Baylor football's official Twitter account, @BUFootball, tweeted this Thursday: "With Baylor sold out of @CottonBowlGame tickets, go to http://www.msuspartans.com to grab seats today. #SicEm"

Schools sometimes put things in place to discourage opposing fans from raiding their tickets in situations like this – requiring the purchase of other tickets, for example. MSU will not do that.

"If you're anticipating your fans want the tickets, you'll put more restrictions on it," Hollis said. "I don't anticipate we will decline people from Plano, Texas or Carrollton, Texas or whatever. Because in the long run it's good for the Big Ten to have those tickets sold."

Unsold Big Ten bowl tickets are pooled and the cost is split among league schools – taken away from the money earned from bowl payouts, which is also split among all league schools. Ten of the Big Ten's 14 football teams will be in bowl games to end this season, though it looked like one would have to sit home until MSU's surprising last-second switch from the Orange Bowl to the Cotton Bowl.

That was only possible because Mississippi State jumped from No. 10 in the Dec. 2 College Football Playoff rankings to No. 7 five days later, in the final rankings. This locked Mississippi State into the Orange Bowl ahead of Michigan State as the highest-ranked Big Ten or SEC non-champion, even though neither team played last weekend.

And this stunned MSU and its fans. Though Mark Dantonio and his team have a better opportunity in the Cotton Bowl to make a statement on the field than would have been possible against Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, many had already made Florida arrangements. MSU's administration had been making plans with Orange Bowl representatives all day Sunday before the rankings switcheroo.

"You talk about a perfect storm," Hollis said of various factors limiting ticket demand. "The playoffs start, the Rose Bowl was last year, we were in a position we thought, by the formula, to play in Miami. And that's not to say the Orange Bowl is a better bowl than the Cotton Bowl, but when you're in that situation, you develop a mindset of 'I'm going to Miami,' and then it's 'I'm not going to Miami.' If you think you're getting an iPad but you get an Xbox instead, it's still a great gift but it's a different gift, and your expectations have been disappointed."

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long, chairman of the CFP selection committee, told the Lansing State Journal that the final rankings were done with a "clean sheet of paper," making it reasonable for Mississippi State to jump Michigan State in the final analysis. That jump also allowed all 10 Big Ten teams to be in bowl games.

Had the Spartans been in the Orange Bowl, the Big Ten would have been locked out of a spot in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando per the new postseason arrangements, and one of its lower-tier bowl teams would have had to sit home altogether. The Orange going to the Bulldogs means all 10 eligible Big Ten teams can go bowling, though the financial impact is negligible.

The Orange pays out $10,981,109 per team this year, while the Cotton pays $6 million – the same as the Fiesta and Peach, two other "New Year's 6" bowls in the new structure. The Rose and Sugar, both hosting Jan. 1 semifinals, pay out $8 million per team.

The Big Ten gains a $4.1 million payout from the Citrus Bowl, but it also has to pay out $2 million to cover expenses for a 10th team.

For MSU, it means a road-game atmosphere on Jan. 1 and some disappointed people. Paul Schager, MSU associate athletic director for external operations, said an outside company had sold 700 seats to MSU fans for an Orange Bowl tour before the bowl announcements, and had sold 30 for the Cotton Bowl.

"If you could take the fans down there and walk them into that stadium, there'd be a lot more people who would want to go," Schager said of the state-of-the-art home of the Dallas Cowboys known as "Jerryworld," which he visited along with MSU deputy athletic director Greg Ianni this week.

"I think if people go, they're really gonna enjoy it," Ianni said. "I was really impressed. I couldn't get over how jacked they are to have a Big Ten team there. They've had SEC and Big 12 and they said to get a Big Ten team there … I think we really underestimate the strength of our brand. People talk about, 'Well, our programs aren't doing well, our football isn't good enough,' this and that. But the strength of our brand and what we bring to the table, people want to be a part of that."

Just as every MSU fan wanted to be a part of the Spartans' first trip to the Rose Bowl in 26 years. The lengths to which people extended themselves financially for that may be coming back around this year.

But Wendy Brown, MSU's associate athletic director for ticket operations, said she's hopeful MSU fans will buy steadily over the next week or so. Tickets are $240 for lower club seats and $150 for reserved seating, along with $50 apiece for MSU students. If not, those tickets will be there for Baylor fans.

"I hate using the word disappointed," Hollis said. "(Sales) are obviously not at the level they would have been had we been in the playoff or in Miami. The loss to Ohio State I think took a lot of air out. A lot of support and money went into the Rose Bowl, from a fan standpoint.

"But we're in one of the top six bowl games, playing the No. 5 team with a chance to finish third in the country when the season's over. And I think that's probably gonna be part of the fallout of the playoff. We're going to the Cotton Bowl and who knows the next time we'll play in one of those games? That's kind of the mindset you have to have."