Save the Bowls, Name the Bowls

The playoff, you may have heard, is expanding to twelve. For 2024 and 2025, the quarterfinals will be played in bowl games but after that they could be played at college stadiums. Either way, it seems likely that the bowls are posed to get less attention than before as they compete with playoff games. Some have speculated that they could even go away entirely.

“There are too many bowl games” is an argument as old as… well since the proliferation of bowl games. Personally, I only started having an issue with it when teams with losing records started getting into them. As a reward for any team with a winning record? I am entirely on board with that. It did seem suboptimal to me, however, that you have neutral site games that struggle to get crowds because the teams are either powerhouses who are really disappointed with playing in a low-seed bowl game, or they are a lesser conference team that has trouble attracting fans even to home games. My idea was to replace most of the lower seed bowls with sponsored invitationals at the campus stadium of the team with the better record. That way you could reserve “bowl” games for teams that reach a higher benchmark, while still having a fun December full of college football.

The expansion of playoffs provides another opportunity along these lines, but perhaps even better: Make the games play-in. Every bowl is basically the championship game of a four-team tournament. Ever team that made the bowl had to do something extra to get there. Making a bowl re-gains some of the prestige it lost along the way, semi-finals can be played on campuses so more fans can attend, and we get even more December games¹.

That brings me to my next point, and this is important: Bowls need proper names. This is especially the case if we’re reducing the number of bowls. When they expanded the number of premier bowls from 4 to 6, one of the things they did was tell the Chick-Fil-A bowl that it needed to get a proper bowl name. It had originated as the Peach Bowl and so it became the Peach Bowl again. A lot of generic bowls have proud and interesting names to return to, though some don’t. A majority of bowls, though, are straight sponsor names or locations and neither are at all inspiring. Sponsors are fine, but they need to be affixed to a permanent bowl name with a strong theme or something that tells you about the bowl and where it is played. For advertising, you can double down on the semi-final invitationals (Cheet-O Puff game winner takes on on the Hot & Spicy Cheet-O game winner in the Cheet-O Bluebonnet Bowl).

On Twitter I have started a thread wherein I suggest names for the existing bowl games. Here is your opportunity to chime in. Some of these bowls already have great names and would never (and should never) be replaced. In those cases, imagine yourself an writer or something trying to come up with a replacement name for your novel about a terrorist plot at a bowl game or whatnot. I have notes on some of them with the history where relevant. All of the ones that are the city name have to go, in my opinion. Preferably we can replace the nickname ones as well.

What have you got?

Bahamas Bowl (Nassau, Bahamas): This is the one case I think that just the name of the place makes sense. It’s the Bahamas! But I could also roll with Paradise Bowl
Cure Bowl (Orlando, FL): Cure is actually a theme bowl name, so doesn’t need a new one. Also, as a general matter, not sure that we want to displace a bowl named for curing cancer as a mission statement.
Fenway Bowl (Boston, MA)
Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, NV)
LA Bowl (Los Angeles, CA):
Mobile Alabama Bowl (Mobile, AL) – Currently the “LendingTree Bowl”
New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, NM)
Frisco Bowl (Frisco, TX)
Myrtle Beach Bowl (Conway, SC)
Potato Bowl (Boise, ID) – This is actually a sponsored bowl by the state potato association, its original name was the “Humanitarian Bowl”
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, FL)
New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, LA)
Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, TX) – This is a theme bowl, though if you have a name for a bowl in Fort Worth have at it.
Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA) – This one has a lot of history so is not likely to change, and it’s in Independence Stadium.
Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, FL) – Named after a pirate in such a way to make you think it’s a flower. I admire the cleverness.
Hawaii Bowl (Honaulu, HI)
Quick Lane Bowl (Detroit, MI) – Replaced the Motor City Bowl.
Camellia Bowl (Montgomery, AL)
First Responder Bowl (Dallas, TX) – Theme name
Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham, AL)
Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Phoenix, AZ) – Has no name prior to sponsorship.
Military Bowl (Annapolis, MD) – Played at Navy’s stadium
Liberty Bowl (Memphis, TN) – The game was originally played in Philadelphia but was moved to Memphis. Memphis went all-in naming the stadium after the bowl game.
Holiday Bowl (San Diego, CA) – This one has a lot of history.
Texas Bowl (Houston, TX)
Pinstripe Bowl (New York, NY) – Played at Yankee stadium
Cheez-It Bowl (Orlando, FL) – Originally the “Sunshine Classic”
Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, TX) – Hard to top this one.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, NC) – Original working title was “Queen City Bowl”
Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX)
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, FL)
Arizona Bowl (Tucson, AZ)
Music City Bowl (Nashville, TN)
ReliaQuest Bowl (Tampa, FL)
Citrus Bowl (Orlando, FL)
Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, FL)
Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, LA)
Cotton Bowl (Arlington, TX)
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA)
Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ)
Peach Bowl (Atlanta, GA)

1. If your response to more games in December between the likes of Arkansas State and Western Michigan is “Nobody cares” what you mean is “you don’t care”… ESPN doesn’t bankroll these things out of generosity. A lot of people can’t get enough college football, even if you can.