HispanicBusiness

The overnight ratings on ESPN2 for the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl game between Florida and Ohio State Monday were nearly 30 percent higher than last year's Mississippi State-Michigan game, the only one of the three New Year's bowl games in Florida matching the SEC vs. the Big Ten that showed an increase over 2011.

Florida's 24-17 victory over Ohio State drew a 2.2 overnight rating, up from last year's 1.7. The Capital One Bowl in Orlando between South Carolina and Nebraska (ABC) had a 2.5 overnight down from 3.7 in 2011 and the Outback Bowl in Tampa (ESPN) between Michigan State and Georgia had a 5.0 overnight rating, down from 7.0.

All three games started at 1 p.m., and all were on ESPN-branded networks. The final numbers could change slightly but the good news for the Gator Bowl in its first year with Taxslayer as a title sponsor is that the ratings for the Outback and Capital One went down while the Gator went up -- even though the Gator Bowl finished third among the three bowls in the overnights.

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"I'm a little surprised it's not higher," said Gator Bowl Association president Rick Catlett. "But given the number of bowl games on TV, we're obviously happy that we had a ratings increase at a time other bowls had a decrease. We expected to do well with Florida and Ohio State."

The cumulative overnight rating on the three ESPN properties for those games was 9.7, down from last year's 12.4.

More good news is that even though the Gator Bowl attendance of 61,312 was the lowest since the 2008 game matching Texas Tech and Virginia (60,243), it was only 39 fans short of the Capital One's attendance of 61,351 and far out-drew the Outback Bowl's 49,429.

With three BCS bowls and the Cotton Bowl remaining to be played, the Gator has the eighth-highest attendance figure of the bowl season.

"The economy is still a little shaky as far as people being able to travel a lot," Catlett said. "But we believe we showed the teams, their official parties and the fans another good time. We have to work harder than most bowls and we think it pays off in the end."