Take the bowl game test: Real or fake?
The games remain the same, only the names change. Title sponsors come and go. Keeping up with them is pointless.
Oh, for the good ol’ days before title sponsors hijacked the name of bowl games. Bowls used to be easy to identify — Rose, Sugar, Orange and Cotton were on New Year’s Day. Gator, Liberty, Sun and Peach weren’t. And 6-5 and 7-4 teams weren’t rewarded with bowl games. Sometimes 8-3 or 9-2 wasn’t good enough.
How well do you know today’s bowl lineups with their title sponsorships? Here’s a quick true-or-false test to find out (answers at the bottom):
1) Cure Bowl
San Jose vs. Georgia State
Orlando, Fla. Dec. 19
2) All-Night Wedding Chapel Polygamy Bowl
Utah vs. BYU
Las Vegas, Nev. Dec. 19
3) UFO Land of Enchantment Bowl
Arizona vs. New Mexico
Albuquerque, N.M., Dec. 19
4) Miami Vice Beach Bowl
Western Kentucky vs. South Florida
Miami, Fla. Dec. 21
5) Hey, Mon! Bahamas Bowl
Middle Tennessee vs. Western Michigan
Nassau, Bahamas Dec. 24
6) Robin Masters Book ’em Dano Bowl
San Diego State vs. Cincinnati
Honolulu, Hawaii Dec. 24
7) Ewing Oil Heart of Dallas Bowl
Washington vs. Southern Miss
Dallas, Texas Dec. 26
8) Winter Palace St. Petersburg Bowl
UConn vs. Marshall
St. Petersburg, Fla. Dec. 26
10) Taco Bell Run for the Border Sun Bowl
Miami vs. Washington State
El Paso, Texas Dec. 26
11) Roto Rooter Big, Nasty Septic Tank Bowl
Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech
Shreveport, La. Dec. 26
12) Bronx Cheer Hoops Challenge
Duke vs. Indiana
Bronx, N.Y. Dec. 26
9) Beautiful Detroit Bowl
Minnesota vs. Central Michigan
Detroit, Mich. Dec. 28
14) Tanger Outlets Tangerine Bowl
North Carolina vs. Baylor
Orlando, Fla. Dec. 29
13) Ron Burgundy Stay Classy, San Diego Holiday Bowl
Southern Cal vs. Wisconsin
San Diego, Calif. Dec. 30
15) Turn Left, Turn Left Bowl
N.C. State vs. Mississippi State
Charlotte, N.C. Dec. 30
16) Outback Steakhouse Peach Bowl
Houston vs. Florida State
Atlanta, Ga. Dec. 31
17) College Football Semifinal at the Capital One Independent Insurance Agent Orange Bowl Featuring Two Very Good Teams Selected by the College Football Playoff Committee
Clemson vs. Oklahoma
Miami Gardens, Fla. Dec. 31
18) College Football Semifinal at the Goodyear DuPont Cotton Bowl Classic Selected by the College Football Playoff Committee
Alabama vs. Michigan State
Arlington, Texas Dec. 31
19) Caterpillar Rose Bowl
Iowa vs. Stanford
Pasadena, Calif. Jan. 1
20) ReaLemon Juice Sugar Bowl
Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma State
New Orleans, La. Jan. 1
Key: 1)True. All the rest are false.