Dec. 25—Florida Man was scanning the globe for diversion today and the dial landed on college football bowl games. You sports fans out there know there used to be five simply named games, Cotton, Orange, Rose, Sugar and Sun. They were held on New Year’s Day. That was in 1938.
By the late 1940s, there were 14 official bowl games and some others that were unofficial. Through the years a battle has simmered between coaches and conferences, big and small, about the sad proliferation of games. Sad because the number of games was supposedly diminishing the value of each one, except for the players.
And in those days players were not paid outright. They were your proverbial student athletes who took benefits under the table. They were being paid just in a different way.
Today, through the payment program called Name, Image, Likeness or NIL is out in the open and they are making a pile. The money comes from endorsements, merchandise sales and booster bucks and it comes in buckets. The dif between image and likeness is a mystery to me.
At any rate, some players are making a million bucks and even the lonely end is making some cash.
This year there are plenty of games, at least one a night between Dec. 20 and Jan. 1, and the names of the bowls are a fun game in themselves.
To name a few:
The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. My favorite name. I watch it loaded. Get it, loaded potato.
Cricket Celebration Bowl
Salute to Veterans Bowl
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bow
Boca Raton Bowl
Art of Sport LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk
StaffDNA Cure Bowl
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl
Myrtle Beach Bowl
Rate Bowl
68 Ventures Bowl
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Bad Boy Mower Pinstripe Bowl
Wasabi Fenway Bowl
Pop Tarts Bowl
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
Cheez-it Citrus Bowl
Duke’s Mayo Bowl
I know I missed some but these names stood out to me as pretty creative. I especially wanted to know more about the teams in the Bad Boy Mower game, the Wasabi game and the Cricket Celebration game so I looked it up.
Here’s what I found.
Boston College and Nebraska are the Bad Boys.
The UConn Huskies and the North Carolina Tar Heels face off in the Wasabi Bowl, a hot ticket. And it’s the South Carolina State Bulldogs and the Jackson State Tigers in the Cricket match.
Well, that’s today’s report from Sports Trivia Central. Tune in tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll have results from the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, a tasty matchup between two football teams.
Happy Hannukah. Merry Christmas. Enjoy your Cheez-Its while watching the Tony the Tiger Bowl.
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