at the Bowl lineup the other day, it is truly garbage, more so than any year I can remember.  Some of the conference affilation changes have hurt things quite a bit, 3 SEC v. B1G matchups at the same time and on the same day become redundant and frankly kind of boring while it is going on.  The Alamo was a much better watch with a B1G team and that bowl has lost a little steam and now is just the Holiday Bowl II.  And even some of the typically fun ones like the Sun Bowl, USC v. Georgia Tech? Puke.  Michigan State v. TCU is one of the more attractive matchups before January 1, and that is not saying much.

The Chik-Fil-A Bowl is an interesting case, which it may not be possible to talk about in detail given the politics issue.* 

But it might be safe to wonder whether  the bowl committee targeted the ACC and SEC for its conference partners, knowing that the company already has a presence on the ground in most of those states, rather than being known primarily for its political stances, as in the case with a lot of the country outside those conferences' footprints.

It is also true that the SEC and ACC schools are mostly drivable to Atlanta, and that's attractive in a second tier bowl, and that marketing to the locations where franchises are located is good business. But if, say, Michigan was invitied to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, I would expect it would create an uncomfortable political situation for the AD. 

Anyway, I guess the larger point I'm trying to make is that this may be a case where the sponsor shapes which conferences a bowl affiliates with.

*(I tried to be careful here to stay on the right side of the no politics line but if any mods think this is over the line, please delete.)

I swear I saw Michigan beat UCLA in the 1981 Bluebonnet bowl.

If I ever heard anyone call the Rose Bowl the Citibank Bowl, I will be forced to do unpleasant things to them.  

I'm waiting for some organic food company to revive the precursor to the Fiesta Bowl.

The Earthbound Farms Salad Bowl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad_Bowl_(game)

I'm fine with "presented by" because everybody pretty much ignores the "presented by" part of it, while still knowing it exists.

I'm not as big of the fan of geographic bowl names (with the conspicuous exception of the Tampa II, which should only invite teams that actually play the Tampa II) because they're really bland. I'd prefer something with a little more character, so it's neither excessively corporate nor blandly generic. Say the Ozarks Bowl, to be played in Fayetteville (on second thought, that's a terrible idea, but just run with it for now). Or the Palmetto Bowl, to be played in South Carolina.

Also, can we all agree that the Military Bowl and the Armed Forces Bowl are really pathetic ways to out-MURICA each other?

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Aside from possible negative financial impacts to certain schools, which is their business, I've never understood why we as fans object to more football.  America is the land of excess, so why in the world would fans be upset about having more football available to watch during an otherwise dead period of time when many of us don't have to be at work, it's cold outside, and.... FOOTBALL.  I just don't get it. 

Diluted value?  I have no idea how the Rose Bowl is diluted because I watched the Pinstripe Bowl or whatever the week before.  The $18M payout of the Rose Bowl sure isn't diluted.  I am thrilled that I am offered a large number of bowl games, and if any of them don't strike my fancy, I simply won't tune in and will watch whatever godawful special holiday programming is on the other channels.  Be careful what you wish for, football fans.  More football is still more football. 

It's not like in the non-conference portion of the season when good teams COULD be playing other good teams.  There are only so many good teams to go around now, and yes, some of the matchups feature mediocre-at-best teams.  So?  Bowl season presents a whole lot more in the way of even matchups than the non-conference. 

Besides, who are we to begrudge thousands of college kids -- who we all supposedly bemoan that they don't get paid -- a nice little vacation during winter break?  Let em have their trip to Disney or whatever, and if the only negative outcome is that their AD is a little more in the red because of other issues, then so be it.  That's my opinion on this.

I will rue the day when the complainers get their way, and instead of watching Texas Tech v Minnesota, I have to watch some 2-hour special of The Voice or some crap.  God forbid we watch Texas Tech v Minnesota.  Worst.  Thing.  Ever.

I also agree that many of these bowls are hard to understand.  I will say that Louisiana-Lafayette played in the New Orleans bowl last year and the French Quarter streets were packed with Rajin' Cajun clad fans.  The Superdome is just plain huge and getting it packed full is a chore.  I attended the Sugar Bowl last year and there were quite a few empty seats for that game as well.  I think these lesser bowls do themselves a favor by picking a team that is local and can easilly travel to the game, such as the Motor City Bowl picking Central Michigan University.  I guess as long as there is a sponsor willing to pay and the bowl exposure helps get the school's name out there, then why not let them go on?  There is definitely something that needs to change to get better teams and matchups in the New Years games though.

Florida Citrus Bowl is actually one of the first sponsored bowl names...it was called the Tangerine Bowl for 35 years (1947-1982). What you call the Tangerine Bowl was barely ever called that (only a couple of times a decade ago) when there were interim sponsors (Visit Florida & Mazda). It's actually the old Blockbuster Bowl (sponsor) or before that was called the Sunshine Classic. Why not call it the Sunshine Bowl?

I like how you bring back Bluebonnet for the Houston in the same way I'm recommending for Tangerine. The classic name in the same city, even if it is technically a different bowl game.

Belk is crap...should have gone by its original name, the Queen City Bowl. Likewise, the San Francisco Bowl should be the Bay City Bowl (like Music City or Motor City or Queen City).

Worst is Meineke Car Care since it is not only clunky, it's been in Charlotte and now Houston. Lame.

I avoid all sponsors in the bowl names. I love a name like Pinstripe because it's perfect.

I consider the bowl in Charlotte to be the Tire Bowl, because it started life as the Continental Tire Bowl, and if you leave off Continental it both ignores sponsors and rolls off the tongue quite nicely.  Of course, the Tire Bowl really should be played in Akron, and a bowl in Charlotte be called the Queen City Bowl or the Carolina Bowl, but we can't have everything.

Also, I don't think the Military Bowl is technically sponsored by the USO.  Its sponsor is Northrup Grumman, which then uses some of the proceeds to benefit the USO, since Northrup Grumman, being a defense contractor and all, has like one customer and probably doesn't need to sponsor anything.

Also also, Beef O'Brady's should be banned from sponsoring anything until they learn to do it right.  Their ads last year during that game (which was among the shittiest football games ever played) were clearly written by a cut-cut-cut-rate ad agency, whom nobody ever told that when you're advertising food, you should make the food look appetizing.  Not like it just came out of the freezer and was heated with a blowtorch. /rant

I went to the Beef O'Brady bowl because it's right down the street from me at Tropicana Field.  It costs $5 or $10 for a ticket on the street.  The organizers put a set of bleachers on one side of the stadium like a high school game, and then cordon off that entire half.  

At the East West Shrine game, it was even worse: not only did they put up the bleachers and cut off half of the stadium, but then they closed the entire upper deck, cramming everyone into about 30% of the stadium.  

So, not only is the stadium not full, but they try to create an artificial experience of a "full" stadium by cramming everyone into the same sections.  The bowls are worth the street price,  and still fun, but I certainly wouldn't pay full price for a dog game to get treated like cattle.

I don't want to be right.

What?  No mention of the Cherry Bowl?

In general I despise the sponsor names and have never used them.  Having said that, I don't mind calling it the Pizza Bowl or the Little Caesar's Bowl just because of how much money the Illitches have sunk into the Tigers.  If the free advertising helps us pay for players like Prince, Miggy & Verlander, then I'm all in.  Also, I never really cared for the sound of "Motor City Bowl" either.  If they had drawn their heritage back to the Cherry Bowl maybe I'd feel differently.  So in a round-about way, I've got no beef with calling it the Pizza! Pizza! Bowl.