Soup In A Bowl

The college football bowl season is upon us, and that means it's time to either laugh at or scratch our heads over why there are so many bowl games, and so many bowl games with ridiculous names. This year there are 34 bowl games played over three weeks from mid-December to early January. You may be somewhat familiar with, or at least have heard of, the more high profile, decades-long running games such as the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, or the Cotton Bowl.

In recent years there has been a proliferation of new bowl games, and each has to have a sponsor, and, of course, the sponsor wants the game named after them. Consequently, there are some absurdly named games, such as (and to quote Dave Barry, I swear I am not making this up!):

Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl

Meineke Car Care Bowl

Papajohns.com Bowl

That's right - not just Papa John's Bowl, but Papajohns.com Bowl. As if to say, "Hey, we're so prestigious and tony that we have a website!" Well guess what, Papa? I've got my own website! In fact, you're reading it right now. In false, I'm going to create my own bowl game: The Fantastic Foodmagorium Bowl. It will be played in Bangor, Maine each January 2. Kickoff at 8pm.

Really, the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl? When was the last time you ate pizza out of a bowl? If they're going to name a bowl game after a food product, at least let it be something you usually eat from a bowl. I can't wait until Battle Creek, Michigan hosts the Kellogg's Cold Cereal Eaten Out Of A Bowl. It will pit the seventh-place team from the Western Athletic Conference against the #11 team from the Big Ten. Exciting! (Really, there are eleven schools in the Big Ten Conference.)

Even the traditional games have added the corporate sponsor name to the official title. The Rose Bowl is officially The Rose Bowl presented by Citi. We have the FedEx Orange Bowl and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The long-running Peach Bowl, played in Atlanta, became the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, but that company didn't want peaches crowding out their logo, so now the game is officially sanctioned the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

What do the football players themselves think about all this? Long ago it meant something to play in a big-name bowl game. It was like, "Hey, we played great this year and we get rewarded with an invite to the Peach Bowl." Now the reaction is more like, "Chick-fil-A Bowl? What's that? Is that any different from the EagleBank Bowl?" What if the right tackle is a vegetarian? Is he really going to want to play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, or the Outback (Steakhouse) Bowl, or the Papajohns.com Meat Lovers Supreme Bowl?