IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Allen gambled on himself and won.
Check that.
The Indiana Hoosiers won, for this season certainly, for a decade of seasons to come, quite possibly.
IU's 8-4 resurrection season -- its best record in a generation -- earned the Hoosiers a TaxSlayer Gator Bowl bid against Tennessee (7-5) in Jacksonville, Fla., and Allen a new seven-year, $27 million contract, but it's so much more than that.
This is hope for a program that badly needs it.
Don't believe it? Check out the Old Oaken Bucket, symbolic of the fierce rivalry with Purdue that is proudly displayed in the Terry Tallen Football Complex courtesy of the season-ending 44-41 double-overtime victory in West Lafayette.