Milk Maid

Over the past few days, you can’t watch TV or scan through internet land without seeing some sort of news story or score update from a college football bowl game. That’s right, between all the holiday festivities, another season has begun, college bowl game season.

Between December 15 and January 7, a total of 40 college football bowl games will be held throughout the country. Like a lot of people, I think the college bowl games have gotten out of control, some to the point of ridiculousness. There are so many bowl games, too many to count.

Some teams just need six wins to qualify to play in a bowl game. They get rewarded for being average. How do teams get into a bowl game? Bowl games that have a contract with a conference must select a team with at least seven wins if one is available.

Any bowl berths that become eligible when a conference fails to meet its contracted tie-ins must first be filled by any eligible seven-win teams before any remaining FBS 6–6 teams can be accommodated, like the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team.

The 2018 Quick Lane Bowl features the Minnesota Golden Gophers battling the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Wednesday evening from Ford Field in Detroit.

Georgia Tech is (7-5) while Minnesota is (6-6) and barely bowl-eligible. Some of the bowl games are worth paying attention to, like the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, complete with its own fabulous parade, the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl.

Many of these 40 bowl games have interesting names.

These games all have sponsors, and honestly, some I have never heard of. That is where they get part or all of their name from, like the Gophers’ bowl game, the Quick Lane Bowl.

Some of them are classic, like the Fiesta Bowl. They pick up a different sponsor every year - like this year they are the “Playstation Fiesta Bowl.”

Some of them get their name from the location of the bowl game, like the Birmingham Bowl game, which was held this weekend. My new favorite bowl game, hands down, is the “Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl” in Tampa.

The name is a mouthful, and it’s great!

I also enjoyed the “Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.” Potatoes are good.

I saw this funny meme on social media, poking fun at bowl game names, on how to choose your own bowl game name.

First, it’s the last place you shopped, then the last thing you ate, plus the word “bowl”.

My bowl game would be, “Mainstream Boutique Peppermint Bowl.”

Kind of fun, right? It’s better than the Gasparilla Bowl.

Enjoy bowl season football fans, and happy new year to everyone!