Ranking all 40 bowl games by the absurdity of their sponsorship
12:38
We’re right in the thick of college football bowl season,
which means that sports lovers will be glued to their
television sets for the foreseeable future. As a member of
that group, I’m anxiously awaiting the start of the really
good games tomorrow, and slogging my way through the
obscure early bowls.
In the 2015-16 season, there are 40 bowl games, which is an
outlandish number. We do not need 40 games, America. We
need about eight, and we could get by with six. But we have
40, and since that’s the case, we have to take our joy where
we can get it. I can guarantee this: That joy won’t come in
the games themselves, unless you like seeing Central Utah
Tech defeat Goyber State Community College 43-12 in the
Dr. Scholl’s Foot Acne Sex Crimes Bowl. (Not a real game, as
far as I know).
So where do we get our kicks?
The names, baby! Bowl games have weird, stupid,
paradoxical names, and they’re fantastic. To celebrate the
ridiculousness of the season, I’ve ranked all 40 bowl games
by the hilarity of their full, unabridged names. My criteria
were holistic, but I mostly gave credit for odd sponsorship
—bowl combos, unnecessary length, and plain old
incoherence. Check out the rankings below, and look out for
next year, when my hope is that the Paste Magazine Net
Neutrality Hydraulic Fracking Mitt Romney Bowl will crack
the top five.
40. Hawai’i Bowl
Nobody sponsors the Hawai’i bowl! Sheraton Hotels used to
be the sponsor, but now they can’t get any corporation to
give enough money for naming rights. This is an outrage.
Come on, corporations—they have a cool apostrophe!
39. St. Petersburg Bowl
This one is a real tragedy, because in 2013, it was called the
“Beef O’Brady’s Bowl,” and in 2014, it was the “Bitcoin St.
Petersburg Bowl.” Those are both top ten names, easily.
Now? They can’t get a sponsor, probably because they’re in
a city that has a really good newspaper and nothing else.
Also, color me shocked that the crypto-currency
sponsorship fell through. (Cue 10,000 outraged emails from
angry white males with thousands invested in BitCoin.)
38. Birmingham Bowl
Former sponsors include Papa John’s and something called
“BBVA Compass,” but now poor Birmingham can’t get a
company to give them a break. I guess it makes sense—it’s
not like Alabama is a big football state or anything.
37. Belk Bowl
Now we get into a whole new classification—bowls with
sponsors, but not actual bowl name. This, to me, is highly
annoying. Nobody gives a shit about the Belk Bowl, which is
sponsored by a Charlotte-based department store chain,
but we might laugh if it were called the “Belk Creepy Uncle
Sweater Vest Bowl.” Why would you deprive us of that?
36. Foster Farms Bowl
Same deal here. I would prefer this poultry company call
their flagship game the “Foster Farms ‘We Keep Chickens in
Horrifying Captivity While We Fatten Them Up With
Chemicals Until Their Hearts Explode’ Bowl.” That would be
no. 1 on this list. Also, I have no idea if that represents
actual Foster Farms company policy, which means that the
preceding sentences were intended as a comedic parody,
which means you can’t sue us, Foster Farms.
35. Miami Beach Bowl
The South Beach Bowl would sound cooler, even if my
recollection of South Beach is a horrifying nightmare of
roller-bladers and dude-bros who fell asleep on the Jersey
Shore and were carried out by the tide and deposited on
the southern tip of Florida before they woke up, to the point
that they’re confused and a little bit angry.
34. GoDaddy Bowl
We all know GoDaddy is the Internet domain company, but
I still say this is a really creepy name, and they should just
go all out and become the GoDaddy Sexy Sexy Internet URL
Boobies Bowl.
33. TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
This is only technically still called the Gator Bowl, and within
a year TaxSlayer will probably co-opt the name entirely. This
is an old and historic bowl, so it will be sad to lose the Gator
name. On the other hand, I’m all for exterminating actual
gators, which are terrifying relics of the dinosaur age and
should be made into purses and fancy shoes.
32. Russell Athletic Tangerine Bowl
Again, “Tangerine” is holding on by a tenuous thread, and
soon Russell Athletic will delete it entirely from the record. I
have nothing else to say about this bowl, except that I’m
pretty sure Russell Athletic is a seventh-rate sportswear
company that only makes throwback Montreal Expos hats.
31. Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is one of those giant private defense
contractors that nets billions of dollars per year from the
U.S. government for inventing new missiles that shoot out
poisonous spiders and dead puppies before they blow up a
playground in Syria, or something. I don’t know the exact
details, but, hey—why is there a drone outside my window
right now?! (PS, parody rule applies! No suing!)
30. Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
See above.
28. Gildan New Mexico Bowl
Gildan is an activewear clothing company, and except for
the uber-liberal city of Taos, people in New Mexico all wear
clothes. A good pairing!
28. Hyundai Sun Bowl
I still say that “Hyundai” is just my mumbly redneck cousin
Jeff mispronouncing “Honda.”
27. Valero Alamo Bowl
Valero, a gas station (okay, “energy company”) is based in
San Antonio, as is the Alamo. In fact, it takes its name from
the “Mission San Antonio de Valero,” aka The Alamo, where
Davey Crockett made his last stand. The fact that there is
such synergy between sponsor and bowl name means that
Valero clearly has no place in the college football landscape.
They should change their name to something like the
“Valero Providence Rhode Island Perfume Parade Bowl”
pronto, or GET THE HELL OUT.
26. Allstate Sugar Bowl
As boring as Allstate, the auto insurance company that has
commercials where the president from 24 address me as
Stan. Why can’t you just be a good neighbor like State Farm?
25. New Era Pinstripe Bowl
The last time there were this many ugly hats in Yankee
Stadium… (note to self: Make joke about a time when
people in Yankee Stadium wore ugly hats, or something).
24. Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual
One of just two games where the sponsor comes second,
after the bowl name. There’s actually some pretty good
synergy here, as Northwestern Mutual advertises its life
insurance policies by visiting funerals and leaving a single
rose on the casket with their contact information. (Again, I
have no solid evidence that this is true.)
23. R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
What does a freight shipping company get out of
sponsoring a minor bowl game? I’m genuinely curious
about this. Will someone who needs a shit ton of cars
shipped from Cleveland to San Francisco be watching the
New Orleans Bowl, and go, “whoa! Who are these guys?!”
22. AutoZone Liberty Bowl
The concept of liberty is edgy because it goes against a
world history dominated by various forms of tyranny, and
the concept of AutoZone is edgy because they took the
concept of a space between words and said, “you know
what? Fuck it! We don’t need no spaceeeee!!!!”
21. Capital One Orange Bowl
Tough to say anything here, because it’s like comparing
corrupt credit card companies that sue their customers
and…oranges.
20. Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Prepare yourself for the shock of a lifetime: When you look
at a Chick-fil-A menu, guess what item does not appear?
That’s right—a peach.
19. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
I love when bowl and sponsor names combine to reinforce
my stereotypes about an entire people!
18. Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl
I was pleased that when I looked up Zaxby’s, a fast-food
chain, I found that it started in Statesboro, GA, and has its
headquarters in Athens, GA. I was less pleased to find out
that since 2008, Zaxby’s does, in fact, have franchises in
Texas. HUGE loss of absurdity points. Still, it’s pretty
ridiculous to group a Georgia chicken finger joint with the
“Heart of Dallas.” But I suppose they couldn’t name it the
“JFK Was Assassinated Here and We Also Have Some Ugly
Malls…Heart of Dallas Bowl.”
17. Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl
I choose to believe Royal Purple is not a company, but an
actual color that somehow was able to sponsor a bowl
game, perhaps by the intervention of a crazy old rich guy.
16. Camping World Independence Bowl
I like this one! Camping is independence, in a way. Unless
you mean independence from dangerous marauding bears
who will poop all over your tent before they eat your leg off,
in which case it’s the opposite of independence.
15. Popeyes Bahamas Bowl
Nothing says tropical getaway like a fried chicken chain run
entirely by rats!
14. Motel 6 Cactus Bowl
Motel 6 is kind of a depressing place, and a cactus is kind of
a depressing plant. This year, the bowl game was held in
Phoenix, AZ, which is kind of a depressing city, and was
contested between West Virginia and Arizona State, which
are two pretty depressing teams. Furthermore, it was held
at 10:15 pm, a depressing time, and played in a baseball
stadium, which is a depressing fact.
13. AutoNation Cure Bowl
“The AutoNation Cure” sounds like some kind of sinister
corporate euphemism for a state-run death apparatus in a
George Saunders story. It also sounds like a Robert Smith
cover band made up of only mechanics. (Also note that like
AutoZone, AutoNation is too edgy for a space between
words. Car repair companies be extreme, yo!)
12. Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Hey everyone, dig our new home loans! You only have to
pay $13/month for the first year! Insane! After that, you pay
$100,000 per month and you can’t re-finance, but seriously,
dig that opening rate! What are you waiting for? Move to
Arizona—a state for retirees that is somehow less
appealing than Florida—and destroy the world economy
while you’re at it!
11. AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl
No joke, I was able to find that AdvoCare is a marketing
company (not an auto repair shop, despite the lack of a
space!) that specializes in nutrition products, but I could not
find one reference to “V100” outside of this bowl game. I
truly think they just added some random letters and
numbers to make this sound cool. And I’m all for that.
10. Goodyear Cotton Bowl
Tires: Not made of cotton.
9. Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl
Buffalo Wild Wings: Offering literally no citrus products,
unless you order a Blue Moon.
8. National Funding Holiday Bowl
This sounds like what that dirty socialist Bernie Sanders
would name a bowl.
7. Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
The contrast of a mortgage company and the Music City
makes me laugh. On one hand, it’s a fun little piece of
Americana! Grand Ole Opry! Country music! Nashville! On
the other, total economic ruin and corruption.
6. Raycom Media Camellia Bowl
“Hey everyone, we’re an obscure media company about to
sponsor a bowl. Any ideas for a sweet name?”
“What about an obscure flower that sounds like somebody’s
mean grandmother?”
“Done!”
5. Ford Motor Company Quick Lane Bowl
For a second, I thought that this was a dual sponsorship
between Ford and a bowling alley company called “Quick
Lane.” I was delighted, because it would be a terrific idea for
a bowling company to sponsor a bowl—it’s the perfect idea!
Instead, it turns out that Quick Lane is some auto shop
subsidiary of Ford, and the magic has vanished from the
world. And hey, Ford: Don’t you mean QuickLane, you old
fogeys? Spaces are for squares!
4. Marmot Boca Raton Bowl
Boca Raton, a haven for displaces senior citizens from Long
Island, is far and away the weirdest and funniest location
for a bowl game on this entire list. Its population doesn’t
even top 100,000, and there’s literally no reason it should
host anything bigger than a Little League tournament.
Marmot is an outdoor clothing company, but it’s named
after a rodent. Everything about the preceding paragraph is
so strange. I’m confounded. I’m pretty sure this is a
fictional event from a shitty fantasy book by George R.R.
Martin’s mentally deranged brother.
3. Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl
Ain’t no party like an Air Force Reserve party, baybbbeeeee!
2. San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
So long! So wonderfully, delightfully long! So weird! Why is a
county credit union sponsoring a bowl game?! This is the
perfect bowl game name, and in any sane world, it would be
no. 1. But this is not a sane world, because of the…
1. BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl
What
the
fuck?
Is this actually happening?
Yes, it is. It’s happening. It happened. This is a real thing
that really happened.
BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl, you win. You’re no. 1.
Please don’t kill us
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