What's In A (Funny) Name? Why Corporations Sponsor College Football Bowl Games

Companies pay up to seven figures to brand these post-regular season games. What's in it for them?

It's Saturday morning, December 16, and I am watching Georgia Southern University play the University of Ohio in something called the Myrtle Beach Bowl. I never heard of the Myrtle Beach Bowl until this week. I never heard of Georgia Southern. And while I certainly know Ohio State University and Miami of Ohio University, I'm not even sure that I knew there was a University of Ohio. It didn't matter. It's college football and it's on TV. 'Tis the season.

2008 Cotton Bowl, photo credit: nffcnnr

The Myrtle Beach Bowl is just the first in a dizzying parade of 43 bowl games between now and the NCAA championship game on January 8th.

 

Unless you’re a hardcore college football fan, most of these bowl games will feature two teams you know little about and possibly never knew existed. They will play in bowl games bearing the names of companies you won't recognize and may never hear of again.

Among this year's offerings are the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl, the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl, Guaranteed Rate Bowl, Duke's Mayo Bowl, TaxAct Texas Bowl, Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Cheez-it Citrus Bowl, Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl, and TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Today, following the Myrtle Beach Bowl, there was the Cricket Celebration Bowl, the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, the Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl, the Isleta New Mexico Bowl, Starco Brands Los Angeles Bowl and the Radiance Technology Independence Bowl.

All 43 bowl games will be televised. In many cases, they exist to be televised.

"The names may trigger confusion, eyerolls or chuckles, but the bottom line is cash - for bowls, networks, schools, and conferences," wrote Bill Shea in The Athletic. "The brands, in return. get to achieve business goals."

New Orleans Superdome, site of the Sugar Bowl, photo credit: Roberto Michel

For the broadcasters of these games, it’s relatively cheap programming during an otherwise slack month. The colleges playing in the games and their conferences get paid. For corporate bowl sponsors, which pay anywhere from $500,000 for an obscure bowl to tens of millions to sponsor one of the major bowls, it’s all about branding. Even an obscure bowl with a pair of obscure teams means a TV audience of millions for what one observer said amounts to a three-hour non-stop commercial.

Is it worth it?

“Does it really work for the sponsor and does the consumer get bothered by the fact that bowls are now being named after businesses? The answer to both is really no,” according to Scholars of the Game, a website and podcast by two law students. “Studies have shown that they don’t really have the impact that some big companies hope for… But there is an argument that for the companies that are not known … it could be a game changer.”

Rose Bowl, photo credit: born1945

 Once upon a time, there were not many bowls and the major ones bore the names of local products from the region. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena (named for the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade). The Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Orange Bowl in Miami. The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans (it was first played at Tulane Stadium, once the site of a sugar processing plant).

As college football broadcasts grew in popularity and profitability, more and more bowls were created. Some did not survive, but the total number inexorably grew. The modern corporate bowl game began in 1986 when the Sun Bowl signed a deal to become the John Hancock Sun Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl became the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl and the Gator Bowl was re-named the  Mazda Gator Bowl. In 1990, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport was dubbed the Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl, which elicited considerable mockery - not exactly what a corporate sponsor wants. Still, the company remained the bowl’s sponsor until 1997.

In 1999, even the venerable Rose Bowl ("The Granddaddy of Them All," as its organizers like to boast) became sponsored, first by AT&T and then, in rapid succession, by PlayStation 2, Citibank, Vizio, Northwestern Mutual, Capital One and now Prudential.

In 2014, Northwestern Mutual reportedly paid $25 million a year to be the presenting sponsor of the Rose Bowl.

"This sponsorship is a natural fit for our company, because many of our clients and prospects follow college sports and many of Northwestern Mutual's top financial representatives are former NCAA student-athletes," the company's CEO, John Schlifske, said in a statement when he signed the deal. That partnership lasted six years, a relatively lengthy relationship.

"Such deals typically include the corporate name on TV and radio, printed materials, stadium physical and digital signage, social media, and other online presentation," Shea wrote. "Companies also use bowl deals to deploy new products on-site, from physical items to loyalty programs and sign-ups for other perks. They'll also use bowl ticket allotments as corporate and client rewards."

The Rose Bowl, photo credit: Todd Huffman

Harder to understand is the reasoning behind the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (né PlainsCapital Bank Fort Worth Bowl) and the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman (yes, that's its official name.) 

"They're honoring the people that use their equipment," Brant Ringler, executive director of the Armed Forces Bowl, told SB Nation in 2017. "They know, Lockheed Martin, are they gonna sell an F-35 to the common fan? No. But there are people that will be in their F-35s that either will be at our game or have flown in an F-35, could be on the football field and will fly in one of their future planes."

On this first glorious day of the bowl season, there is such a vast menu of offerings that, if timed right, one could watch football non-stop from morning to after midnight. That's a whole lot of football to behold. A lot of corporate names to remember. Or not.