Long gone are the days when Boston College played in the Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Tangerine Bowls. And I mean long gone. Those select few college football bowl games have been replaced by an ACC bowl lineup that includes the Advocare V100 Independence Bowl, the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, the Hyundai Sun Bowl and the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. The Champs Sports Bowl, in comparison, seems like a relic from the good old days of college football.
So it should come as no surprise that the Charlotte-based Meineke Car Care Bowl is dropping Meineke next season in favor of a private, family-owned department store (Belk). That's right. Starting next season, BC can aspire to getting to play a little closer to home in Charlotte in a game called the Belk Bowl. Joy.
Bowl game title sponsors are turning over so frequently that one of the ACC's eight bowl game tie-ins actually changed title sponsors mid-season -- the Washington DC-based EagleBank Bowl becoming the "Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman" at some point during the season. Which, by the way, is a bowl game that doesn't feature a service academy or even one of the two Division I-A football-playing Senior Military Colleges.
Should BC find themselves in Charlotte for their bowl game next season, they will become the first program to play in the Charlotte-based bowl three times under three different bowl title sponsors -- Continental Tire Bowl (2004), Meineke Car Care Bowl (2006) and the Belk Bowl (2011).
This season, BC will play in the San Francisco-based Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, having made two other trips to San Francisco to play in two differently-named bowl names -- the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl (2003) and the Emerald Bowl (2009).
Nothing, however, will top the Tangerine Bowl, which has underwent six name changes since BC first played in the bowl game in 1982 opposite the Auburn Tigers. Since then, the bowl has gone from the Carquest Bowl (BC defeated Virginia in 1993) to the MicronPC Bowl to the slightly more specific MicronPC.com Bowl to the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl to the Mazda Tangerine Bowl to finally, the Champs Sports Bowl.
Like I said, this is getting a bit ridiculous, no?
Number of Name Changes Since BC Played In The Bowl Game (Year BC Played in Parenthesis)
6: Tangerine Bowl (1982)
Carquest Bowl (1993), MicronPC Bowl, MicronPC.com Bowl, Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl, Mazda Tangerine Bowl, Champs Sports Bowl (2007)
4: Cotton Bowl Classic (1939, 1984)
Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic, Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic, SBC Communications Cotton Bowl Classic, AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic
4: Music City Bowl (2001)
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl presented by Bridgestone, Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (2008), Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl
2: Orange Bowl (1942)
FedEx Orange Bowl, Discover Orange Bowl
2: Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (2011)
Emerald Bowl (2009), Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl (2003)
2: Liberty Bowl (1983)
AXA Liberty Bowl, AutoZone Liberty Bowl
2: MPC Computers Bowl (2005)
Roady's Humanitarian Bowl, uDrove Humanitarian Bowl
1: Insight.com (1999)
Insight Bowl
1: Motor City Bowl (2002)
Little Caesar Pizza Bowl