The 5 Things You Need To Know To Survive College Football Game Season

Sports Curious

How to survive college football’s biggest month when the only bowl you care about is a Chipotle burrito bowl. .......................... 1. What’s in a name? Well, for bowl games, it’s big money. The committees will do just about anything to please their title sponsors, including naming the game itself something odd. This season, the most memorable bowl game names roll off the tongue like the Cheez-It Bowl, TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, and the inaugural Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. And yes, there used to be a game called the Salad Bowl. 2. Name, image, likeness (NIL) has changed how college athletes approach bowl games. While according to NCAA rules, athletes cannot accept gifts of more than $550 (like those coveted bowl game swag bags,) they can earn money off of their name, image and likeness. Take, for instance, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Not only are they offering the winning team $10,000 to the charity of their choice if they douse their coach in mayo instead of Gatorade at the end of the game, but they’re offering individual players $5,000 to be a bowl game ambassador. PS: If you’re wondering, unless players play for one of the final four playoff teams, their families are not eligible for travel compensation to games. 3. Not all teams are invited to a bowl game. A team has to have win six games to be considered bowl eligible. The TV exposure, additional revenue, and chance at a title come with a winning price tag. But this year, there’s a temporary extra bowl game, so now 84 teams will get in on the fun that is bowl game season. 4. The top four teams in the country (in ranking order – Alabama, Michigan, Georgia and Cincinnati) will play each other on New Year’s Eve in either the Orange Bowl in Miami or the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The winner of those two games will play each other in the National Championship Game on Monday, January 10. The other bowl games are for pride and money for the program but will not impact a team’s overall rating. 5. One study estimates that college football bowl season carries a $1.44 billion economic impact. According to USA Today, the big six bowl games - the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Peach and Cotton bowls, plus the national championship game, paid out a combined $549 million to conferences and schools in 2018-19. The same documents showed the other bowl games paying out a total of $99 million.