Ridiculous Bowl Games

During the bowl season we really see how out of hand the commercialism has gotten in college. Was everybody excited for the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl? How about the Meineke Car Care Bowl? Or the PapaJohns.com Bowl? I'm not against advertisements in sports nor am I naive enough to think that Bowls should do away with these names all together. That's not going to happen. What I don't like about it is the fact that these names have taken away from the prestige and accomplishment of the players. How can a player say with pride that he played in AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl? The names have really cheapened these games.

The Peach Bowl used to be a pretty prestigious bowl. Pitting a top ACC team against an SEC team made it one to watch. Then it became the Chick-fil-A Peach bowl. Ok, I understand that. It might not have the same ring to it, but at least it doesn't have a ridiculous name like some of the others I mentioned. Now, it is simply the Chick-fil-A bowl. Why was that necessary? The message here is that the bowl is not as important as the sponsor. The actual bowl took away from their advertisement. Maybe they shouldn't even play the game, but just have a four hour slide show about chicken.

The bottom line is that you have a group of college kids leaving everything they've got on the field and we reward them with a trophy for the Capital One Bowl. When bowl names get thrown out completely and replaced by companies, they lose something. The BCS gets rich and then they wonder why people aren't as excited about bowl games as they used to be. This also completely undermines the NCAA. College players can't take a salary, can't make endorsements, can't hire agents, and then play in the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl. It's completely hypocritical. Why are people surprised when players leave early? The BCS has sent a message that money is the most important part of football. When officials collect on the EagleBank Bowl and then tell players that their scholarship is too high or it violates some obscure rule, why should they stay?

Well, players are asking themselves the same question. Think of all the superstars that walk away every year to collect that big pay check. Who can blame them? If players have nothing else to play for, they will play for money and the college game suffers because of it.