Worst bowl names in history

To welcome the official start of college football's Bowl Season (BYU-UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl--get fired up!), I decided to throw together a list of the worst bowl names in history. In case you were wondering, yes, this was absolutely inspired by my realization that the innocuously named "St. Petersburg Bowl" had been re-branded with the infinitely more ridiculous "Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl" moniker this year. Good grief.

I won't rank them in any particular order, because really, what's the point?

Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl
The bowl that started it all. In the innocent old days of 1991, when there were a mere 18 bowl games (now a ludicrous 35), most of which borrowed their names from fruits or local references, the Independence Bowl down in Shreveport, Louisiana decided to sell its naming rights to a local outdoor power equipment manufacturer. The name was the subject of frequent ridicule (and still is to this day), but it more importantly sparked a generation of ridiculous bowl game sponsorships. Such as...

Galleryfurniture.com Bowl

Oh boy. Not satisfied with the concept of creating a bowl game with no actual name outside of its corporate sponsor, the fine folks down in Houston decided to throw in the extra wrinkle of promoting the company's website, and not just the company itself. That took bowl sponsorship and naming rights to the next level, sparking copycats like this one, this one, and this one. I'm sure the Gallery Furniture folks sell some fine products, but this bowl wasn't one of them.

Champs Sports Bowl

Not necessarily ridiculous on its own, the Champs Sports Bowl receives extra credit for its naming rights bigamy. Since its founding in 1990, the game has been known as the Sunshine Classic, the Blockbuster Bowl, the Carquest Bowl, the MicronPC Bowl (and the MicronPC.com Bowl), the Visit Florida Tangerine Bowl, the Mazda Tangerine Bowl, and finally the Champs Sports Bowl. That's an impressive body of work, and the bowl is worthy of a mention on that basis alone.

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl

Another new entrant this year, after long-time title sponsor Diamond of California--which had used the names Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl and Emerald Bowl--backed out. To be fair, I feel a little bad about harping on a company (Kraft) for trying to do the right thing by raising awareness about worldwide hunger. But the competitors in this year's inaugural Fight Hunger Bowl are Nevada and Boston College (a school for which I have no love lost), and the initial Las Vegas odds have Nevada as a sizable 9.5-point favorite.

There are probably better ways to fight hunger than to stage a game between two poorly-matched also-ran teams on a Sunday night in January when every sports fan in America will be paying attention to the NFL Playoffs, and not this game. I'll tell you what, Kraft (and the NCAA), I'll do you one better--I'll stage a hunger strike until you give me a real bowl game. Or better yet, a playoff.

(Special thanks to Wikipedia)