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College Bowls, 2011-12
I watch more college football than the (formally) professional variety, so found myself reviewing the 2011-12 bowl schedule, which this season extends from the "Gildan New Mexico" to the "Allstate BCS National Championship Game". Between those limits, the proliferation of bowls has continued, and their names are becoming much more closely tied to sponsors.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6672862
A few highlights...- The "Famous Idaho Potato Bowl" will actually take place in Boise. There are plenty of other food sponsors: "Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg", "Little Caesars", "Tostitos Fiesta"
- The bowl that manages to invoke colonial america, the financial crisis, and country music all at once: "Franklin American Mortgage Music City"
- Almost all these take place during the holiday period, but I suppose "Bridgepoint Education Holiday" needed to make it especially clear to students.
- The "Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl" will feature Ohio State and Florida, so I'll probably need to fit this one in to my viewing schedule, even were it not for the evocative name.
- The military industrial complex has a presence in bowl games that I've not noticed in the past, represented by "Military Bowl Presented By Northrop Grumman" and "Bell Helicopter Armed Forces" (which game does not even feature one of the military academies).
- A couple of these names are almost inherently redundant: "Champs Sports", "TicketCity", but others just leaving me scratching my head: "BBVA Compass Bowl", "Belk", "AdvoCare V100 Independence".
- I can look forward to scantily-clad women in ads during the "GoDaddy.com" game, but only used cars with the "Meineke Car Care of Texas" game.
- My Alma Mater, Iowa State, will be playing at the "New Era Pinstripe", but I'm not sure how well such detail in the costumes will show up on the small screen.
Thirty-five bowl games in total. A single elimination tournament could be done with more than five rounds in five weeks - surely enough to tolerate a playoff?