Before this year's inaugural Pinstripe Bowl, the Miami Hurricanes played in the last college football bowl game held within New York City way back in the 1962 Gotham Bowl. Now with the new Yankees Stadium interested in hosting football games, it seems that the Hurricanes want to become something of a makeshift home team for the nation's biggest city with the hopes of playing in NYC or near it once every four years.
Miami AD Kirby Hocutt tells CanesSports via SBNation that a deal to play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Yankee Stadium in 2013 is off, the 'Canes still hope to schedule another opponent for the game.
"Unfortunately the opponent hasn't been finalized," says Hocutt. "There are a couple of Big East options we're working on. What we've done is we've given a list of opponents to individuals at Yankee Stadium on who we would play. They're talking to a couple of teams I'd prefer not to mention."
Hocutt hopes that the possible 2013 game isn't the only game the 'Canes play in Gotham.
"We would return or have the desire to return at a later point, of course," Hocutt adds, "as well we have a strong desire to have a consistent presence in the New York City/New Jersey market. I'm hopeful we can get some finalization to the game at Yankee Stadium in 2013, and on an every four-year basis have a presence in New York City/New Jersey."
A trip to a UM frat house or sorority hall reveals that the school certainly has a big base of students and alum from the NYC/NJ area (how you doing Long Island girls?), and the 'Canes traditionally edgy, non-redneck football culture might prove welcoming to New Yorker's looking to dip their toes in the pool of Red State America's favorite sport that doesn't involve car crashes. So the plan does make a certain amount of sense.
The only thing seeming to hold it up is the absence of other teams. You know, we've heard rumors that Columbia actually has something resembling a football team. If Hocutt gets desperate maybe he can burn the 'Canes yearly FCS subdivision gimme and institute the most lopsided series in the nation.
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