Best & Worst Bowl Names of 2022

Bowl season has become a competition of which games can come up with the most ridiculous names — usually decided by the brand that’s the highest bidder. Even teams that end up with 9 wins on the season are being sent to the “San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl”.

Over the past few years it seems like we’re getting less household name brands sponsoring bowl games. There’s a lot of smaller, niche companies that are buying up the naming rights for these games. Guess Outback and CapitalOne started to realize it wasn’t worth the money to send a bunch of college guys on a glorified vacation. But with these smaller companies we get some interesting names. For better or for worse.

Best Bowl Names

Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl

This is perfect. Bad Boy Mowers will slowly make their way up to become the presenting sponsor for the Sugar Bowl. On top of a great sponsor, the Pinstripe bowl is a great name. Being played at Yankee stadium is the icing on the cake of what is a solid bowl game.

Cheez-It Bowl

Not much to unpack here. The Cheez-It bowl has become a staple of bowl season and worked its way up the ranks. If you’re not going to make it to the New Year’s 6 game, the Cheez-It Bowl is a nice end to the season. And we of course get the Cheez-It bath for the winning coach.

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl

A real champ. An icon. I’d implore every company to name a bowl game after their mascot. Except Flo. Flo sucks. Imagine if this was the Frosted Flakes Sun Bowl. Still a good name. But Tony the Tiger, c’mon.

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl

Lots of brand synergy here. Kudos to the marketing team.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

This has become a bowl season staple. Similar to the Cheez-It bath, we get a french fry bath for the winning coach. This is to the MAC and Mountain West what the Peach Bowl used to be ACC and SEC. An iconic, regional matchup in a bowl game named after a state’s food.

Worst

Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Presented by Stifel

Every aspect of this is hatable. A douchey late night host. “LA” instead of Hollywood or SoCal. Literally anything but LA. All presented by a St. Louis based Investment Banking company. What the hell?

Roofclaim.com Boca Raton Bowl

Gotta have something more exciting for Boca Raton. Roofclaim.com is weighing them down like an anchor. And absolute snooze. And you know that roofclaim.com is going to be throwing on the worst ads you’ve ever seen during this game.

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl

This used to be the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl so anything else, let alone a mortgage company, is a steep decline.

Easypost Hawaii Bowl

The Hawaii Bowl gets ruined by any presenting sponsor. It takes away from the main draw of the game. Can’t we get Dole to sponsor this or does that make too much sense?

TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl

Crummy off-brand ticketing website. If we’re going to make two teams travel to Birmingham for their bowl game, can’t we at least give them a presenting sponsor to get excited about?

Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Mayo’s become a pretty polarizing condiment. Personally, I hate mayo, so I hate the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. If we’re going to be naming bowls after condiments then let’s get spicy mustard in here somewhere. The Oriental Wok Spicy Mustard Rose Bowl? I’m all in.

For the most part, absurd brands being the title sponsors of these games makes for a unique experience. Especially when they can lean into how ridiculous it is. Let’s be honest, no one is taking a game in Hawaii on Christmas eve between two 6 win teams that seriously. Bowls with insurance or financial companies as the presenting sponsor is about the dullest thing imaginable. Let’s have some fun with it.