Theyyyyyyy're Not Great! Tony The Tiger And The Worst Bowl Game Sponsors

Christmas is just around the corner, and besides the arrival of holiday cheer, the college football bowl season arrives as well. Gone are the days of plain old boringly-named bowl games like the Sun Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl (ok that one is kinda fun), etc etc. Now most of these bowl games are sponsored, and by some of the oddest named companies going. Things have gotten so weird in fact, the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl is almost normal.

Let’s take a look at the ten weirdest.

10. The Salad Bowl (1947-55)

This one brought to you by...salad? This game was played in Phoenix, Arizona right around the end of World War II. Of all the bowls named after food and companies that make food, this one is the best because it’s almost meta. And hilarious. They should bring this one back.

9. Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl (2019-present)

Named after the mascot of the greatest kid’s cereal ever, the only real way to watch this game is to eat at least half a box of Frosted Flakes while watching. It’s only right.

8. Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl (2017-present)

You have to yell the name of this bowl game as if you’re Peyton Manning calling a pre-snap read. Makes it sound even funnier. For what it’s worth, Cheribundi Tart Cherry Juice is a reconstituted apple juice drink with 200 cherries in every bottle. Now I must have one.

7. Redbox Bowl (originally the San Francisco Bowl)

Named after the company that lets you rent movies at your local Safeway like it’s a Blockbuster Video. I guess there are people that still rent physical copies of movies in the age of Netflix, but I don’t know any of them. Anyway, they make enough money to sponsor a bowl game so cheers to them.

6. Dollar General Bowl

A name befitting the matchup between the MAC and Sun Belt Conferences, Dollar General is apparently a chain of stores where all of your household essentials can be had for one dollar. You could charge me a dollar to go to this game and I’d still say no.

5. Cheez-It Bowl

This one takes place in Phoenix, Arizona and used to be called the Cactus Bowl, so they changed it to something that makes way more sense... Anyway, be prepared to be bombarded with cheesy crackers commercials for four hours. It’s a Big-12 vs Pac-12 matchup so it should be a not-terrible game.

4. Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl

Makers Wanted is the largest industrial park located at Elk Grove Village, a suburb located by the airport in ​Chicago. ​Keyword here Chicago. The Bahamas are about 1,300 miles from

Chicago and about 1,300 degrees warmer this time of year. So yes, naming it this makes no sense but hey, it’s not my money.

3. Poulan Weed Eater Independence Bowl (1991-97)

No longer number 1 on the list, but number 1 in our hearts, we have the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl. Long the poster child for the watering down of the entire bowl system and the ridiculousness of too many bowl games, the PWEIB was the butt of so many jokes in its day. Little did we know that the joke would be on us as the sponsor names got worse.

2. Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl

A Japanese car manufacturer and Sin City--a match made in heaven. But seriously, like all of these bowl sponsors, the combination doesn’t make any sense and may be the oddest pairing of the whole lot.

1. The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl

Now that’s a mouthful. Played in Tampa, Florida, sadly, this bowl game isn’t named after Puff Daddy’s record label. Now ​that ​would be something, and with a Diddy halftime show too?! Sign me up! But again, sadly, there is no affiliation. Apparently this is some amalgam of zero-turn residential lawn mowers and pirates. Yeah, weird. Gasparilla is the name of an annual pirate festival in Tampa named after the pirate Gaspar--who by all accounts never even existed. But there is a cool pirate ship at the Buccaneers stadium where this game is being played, so there’s that.

There you have it, ten ridiculous bowl names. There should be some sort of prize given for watching them all. For the latest betting lines on every bowl game and more, head over to 888Sport Betting NJ and put your money down on your favorite team!

*Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Joel Auerbach/Associated Press