RSSWhat’s In A Name (Bowl Edition)
December 6, 2011
Johnny Goodman - See all 177 of my articles
The Bowl Lineups are all set. This year we have 35 glorious bowl games until we then have to wait around for the NFL playoffs. Once the NFL gets out of the way, it is a whole bunch of dead air space until we hit the time known as March Madness (sorry Hockey fans, I am just not buying the NHL)
As always ESPN tries to make mountains out of molehills and stir up the pot before the over hyped BCS Selection Show, that was on Sunday evening. Did anyone really thing that Oklahoma State was going to leapfrog Alabama and take on Louisiana State in the BCS Title Game? Yawner here for me, I am not sure I would watch this game other than it is the only game on that night. To me, bowl game rematches are about as exciting as pulling staples out of large stacks of paper.
Large paper stacks make me think of one of my favorite sponsorships for the Bowl season this year. It has got to be the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl. I mean when I think of Football, I think of an accounting service with a supercharged name like TaxSlayer.
A general rule of thumb is that if someone has to do an internet search to see what the heck the sponsorship is, you need to be spending your money somewhere first other than on a Bowl Sponsorship. For those who are wondering, The Belk Bowl between Louisville and North Carolina State is some sort of retailer down south apparently. A northerner like me has never heard of this company. I guess that is why they are pitting two “southern” schools against one another – further optimizing their revenues.
Apparently, Meineke has downsized as now instead of being called the Meineke Car Care Bowl, as in the past – it is now the Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl. This just furthers my conspiracy theories that the Republic will continue to seek to leave the union and become independent once again. First the Longhorn Network, then the hanging on by the skin of your teeth to keep the Big XII together, and now this. What do all of the other Meineke outlets think about this. It is OUTRAGE I tell you!
Another one I had to look up on line was the BBVA Compass Bowl, which matches up SMU and Pittsburgh. I learned that BBVA is in fact not really the name. It is the accepted “trade name” of BBVA Compass Bancshares INC. I think for truth in advertising, the bowl should therefore be renamed the BBVA COMPASS BANCHARES INC dba BBVA Compass Bank Bowl. Does the NCAA have no input on truth in advertising? Do you think ESPN wants this potential mess of false advertising on their network? At the very least this would give this bowl a runaway lead for the longest bowl name by far which would be way more exciting than this game is going to be for anyone to watch outside of Mustang or Panther fans.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Not because of the name, but because of the situation involving the bowl game. Illinois Coach Ron Zook is fired. On the other side UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel is fired, and better yet, the Bruins are technically not bowl eligible (as they have a sub .500 record) as they are currently 6-7 on the year. If they lose this game, which I think they will, they will end the year at 6-8. EEEEEESSSSHHHHHH! The NCCA gave them an exemption to go to a bowl game with this record as they were forced to play in the first Pac 12 title game match-up – because the USC Trojans are on probation and not eligible to play this year. A true genius move by the NCCA.
Good luck in all of your office pools. Stay tuned next week for the Johnny G Bowl Prediction Show.
Until next time – Stay Classy Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Dec 06, 2011 @ 13:07:21
You know, BBVA is an acronym for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. They should put the full name on the bowl game 🙂
On the bowl pool I run (for entertainment purposes), I expand the acronyms. It’s not the SDCCU Poinsettia bowl, it’s the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.
I’m annoyed that there is a potato bowl this year. I always sneak one fake bowl into my bowl pool, and I’ve used the potato bowl once or twice. A few people fall for it, probably because KFC has a potato bowl (thus the term in in their mind somewhere).
The Biggest Loser should have sponsored the Illinois – UCLA game. In addition to being 6-6, Illinois is on a six game losing streak. So we’ll either have an 8 loss bowl team, or a bowl team that ends the season with a seven game losing streak. It would be funny if Illinois lost, then started next year 0-6 before winning their final six games. They’d have a 13 game losing streak spread across two season and be bowl eligible both years.
I don’t have a problem with the exemption for UCLA. It would seem odd to penalize a team for advancing to their conference championship game. This isn’t the first time the issue has come up. In 2004, there was a chance that Iowa State would advance to the Big XII title game with a 6-5 record. A loss would have knocked them down to 6-6, and at the time, a WINNING record (not just .500) was required for bowl eligibility. ISU was granted the waiver, although they ended up losing a tiebreaker for the division title.