Who's Bowling?!

One of the most significant and interesting forms of advertising and promotion that I have seen in the past few weeks is involved with college athletics. As you hopefully know already, SJSU football has made quite a recovery this year, and has just agreed to play in the New Mexico Bowl this December 23, 2006. When researching more about the bowls I was intrigued by the amount of money companies spend on having their name on a bowl. A prime example of this is the fiesta bowl sponsored by Tostitos held in Glendale Arizona.

With these bowls the companies sponsoring them pay out the teams invited anywhere from $750,000 to $17 million. While these numbers seem huge, the bowls are constructive for the company or organization hosting them. These games become so popular that they are referred to more by the company they represent than the teams that are playing. Bowls like the Fiesta bowl or the Sugar bowl are known to have great teams in attendance, and people may purchase tickets for them, far before the teams playing are determined. These games are generally all sell outs, and people may travel thousands of miles to participate in them or to support a team. They view these bowls as a way to bring tourism to different cities, and a way to advertise across the nation bringing together well known teams that sports fans want to see play each other.

College football rankings do factor into what teams are invited, but in the end the companies have the final call with invitations. A full listing of the Bowls can be found at CollegeFootballPoll.