The alumni, who likely never showed up at MS when they are undergrads are going to show up at Yankee Stadium in late December on a 20 degree day? And sit in a stadium where the field runs home plate to Center field and a seat on the 50 starts about 25 yds away from the field?
I think the criticism of the Bowl tie-ins is overblown. the B10 has secured the most profitable bowl lineup and tweaks it every few years for variety of location and guarantees Bowls won’t get the same team every year (by massaging the selection order. The league suffers by having only one bowl tie in within the footprint (Detroit) and that game is more a penalty than a reward. Minneapolis and Indianapolis just aren’t Bowl destinations for fans looking to drop money on flights and hotels. Orlando/San Diego/Tampa over New Year? More likely to convince the wife to make the trip and drop the dough.
First, regarding the weather, sure, it will probably be cold, but New York is hardly the arctic. It could be colder in Nashville than in New York. When the Hoosiers played in the Pinstripe in 2015, it was a 52 degree day.
Regarding attendance, there were 37,218 in Yankee Stadium for our game in 2015. That's comparable to last year's Pinstripe attendance of 37,821 (Wisconsin/Miami) and the 2017 attendance of 37,667. The 2017 game featured Iowa and a team within an easy drive of New York - - Boston College.
37,000+ is a respectable crowd for a bowl game. People go to the Pinstripe, and New York at Christmastime is pretty cool.
That said, I'd rather go to Florida, but we could do a lot worse than New York.