Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
There will be 39 College Football Bowl games played this holiday season.
That means 78 teams qualified for a Bowl game this year; but they only needed to beat out half their opponents to do so. In other words, in some of this year's bowls, we're not talking la crème de la crème.
Regardless, more and more every year, corporations are spending big bucks for bowl naming rights. And new bowls are popping up. Case in point: This year, the Ford Motor Company Quick Lane Bowl (the de facto replacement of the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl), and the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl. Never heard of these Bowl games? You're not alone.
Even most of the bowls regarded as American institutions have a new corporate stamp on them every few years.
Take the Gator Bowl, played in Jacksonville, Florida, since 1946. In 1986, it became the Mazda Gator Bowl. That sponsor contract lasted for five years until Outback Steakhouse took over. Then it was the Toyota Gator Bowl, the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl, the Progressive Insurance Gator Bowl...and now it's just the Taxslayer Bowl -- as in Taxslayer.com.
So, how much does corporate America have to do with this expansion? What do corporate sponsors get in return for stamping their name on a Bowl -- especially a less-than-prestigious one?
Ralph Russo covers College Football for the Associated Press and he joins Take Two to answer these questions and more.