Sparked by a huge turnout of Kentucky fans, the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl ranked among the top 10 most attended bowl games for the 2007-08 post-season.
The Music City Bowl had a bowl-record crowd of 68,661 at LP Field in Nashville as the Wildcats downed Florida State, 35-28. That attendance ranked ninth among the 32 bowl games. That also rates as the fourth-best attendance among the 27 non-BCS bowl games.
UK Among Bowl Percentage Leaders: Having won the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl the last two seasons, Kentucky?s bowl-game winning percentage now ranks 13th among the NCAA Division I schools that have played in 12 or more bowl games.
Kentucky has an all-time record of 7-5 in bowl games, a winning percentage of .583. A total of 63 Division I schools have played at least 12 bowl games. UK ranks 13th among those 63 teams.
Bowl-game winning percentage (min. 12 bowls)
Team Pct. Record Utah .769 10-3 Boston College .684 13-6 Penn State .675 26-12-2 Oklahoma State .667 12-6 Southern California .652 30-16 Ole Miss .613 19-12 Georgia Tech .611 22-14 Oklahoma .598 24-16-1 Georgia .593 24-16-3 Alabama .591 31-21-3 Auburn .588 19-13-2 Fresno State .588 10-7 Kentucky .583 7-5
Tuned in to the Cats: The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl was the highest-rated non-primetime cable television show for the week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Music City Bowl ? televised by ESPN ? was seen in 3.88 million homes and drew 5.29 million viewers. The bowl ranked third overall among all cable television shows for that week, including primetime events.
Four Wildcats to the Senior Bowl: Four Kentucky players, tailback Rafael Little, tight end Jacob Tamme, quarterback Andr? Woodson, and linebacker Wesley Woodyard, are scheduled to play in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 26.
The 59th-annual event, which features top college seniors from around the nation, will be played in Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., at 4 p.m. EST (3 p.m. in Mobile). The game will be televised on the NFL Network. The team practices on Jan. 21-25 also will be televised on the NFL Network.
Four players are the most Wildcats ever to play in a Senior Bowl, as three UK players had been in the game following the 1966 and 1992 seasons. This year?s game will bring Kentucky?s all-time total to 28 players who have participated in the event.
Wide receiver Keenan Burton also had planned to play in the Senior Bowl, but had arthroscopic knee surgery following his gutsy performance in UK?s victory in the Music City Bowl. Burton has recovered well and has resumed training, but has decided not to participate in the Senior Bowl.
Eight SEC Players Declare for NFL Draft: A total of eight juniors from Southeastern Conference schools declared early entry to the National Football League draft. Here is the list, according to ESPN.com:
Earl Bennett, WR – Vanderbilt
Demario Bobo, DB – Mississippi State
Derrick Harvey, DE – Florida
Felix Jones, RB – Arkansas
Jerod Mayo, LB – Tennessee
Darren McFadden, RB – Arkansas
Sean Penix, WR – Arkansas
Pat Sims, DT – Auburn
In addition, two players from Kentucky?s non-conference opponents ? linebacker Lamar Myles and wide receiver Mario Urrutia of Louisville ? also opted for the draft, which will be held April 26-27.
