Bowl season is here and that means endless mediocrity
Well the college football bowl season has started.
Are you excited?
I know I am. Nothing gets me more fired up than a slow drip of meaningless bowl games.
This year, there are 34 bowl games and, other than the BCS bowls and a couple of others, I have more interest in watching Honey Boo Boo than sitting through quarter after quarter of blasé football.
It’s much more entertaining, in my opinion, to examine the list of Bowl game names. They are starting to read like a NASCAR event.
“Well, I am proud of my team and very excited that we were able to get this victory in the Cheez-Its/Chef Boyardee/Zales Jewelry/Dunkin’ Donuts Bowl,” said a coach … never.
This year there seems to be a trend toward succinctness in the Bowl names. For instance, there’s the Belk Bowl and the New Orleans Bowl — that will be played in, uh, New Orleans.
Doing a little research, there has been some comical names for Bowl games of the past. Here a few I dug up and, yes, they were actual events:
The Bacardi Bowl: Was named after the Cuban rum, this game was played in Havana, Cuba seven times with the last one being played in 1946 — a 55-0 win for Southern Miss over powerful Havana University.
The Refrigerator Bowl: The Fridge Bowl was played annually in Evansville, IN from 1948-1956. Sam Houston Teachers College took down Middle Tennessee State back in ‘56. Why the Refrigerator Bowl? Evansville, IN was known as the “refrigerator capital of the world” back in those days.
The Salad Bowl: No lie. The Salad Bowl was played in the 40s and 50s and was actually the predecessor to the Fiesta Bowl. No kidding.
The Raisin Bowl: It’s founders tried to throw a new, uh, wrinkle with this game that was played four times in the 40s — but it quickly shriveled up and died.
Here are some other defunct bowls with terrible names:
Oil Bowl: No, it was played in Texas, not the Middle East.
Cigar Bowl: Don’t think that name would fly today.
Haka Bowl: This game was supposed to start in 1996 in Auckland, New Zealand. It was doomed from the start.
Mirage Bowl: Actually took place in Japan from ‘76-’93. The big question is, Why?
Vulcan Bowl: No truth to the rumor that Spock coached against Captain Kirk in this one.
On second thought, when I look at some of these past Bowl games, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl doesn’t seem so bad.
With that thought in mind, here are the Fearless Forecasters picks for a sample size of 20 Bowl games. Enjoy.