One prime example of today’s consumer-driven sports society is the college bowl season. Many traditional bowl games, such as the Holiday Bowl and Rose Bowl have been re-named according to their corporate sponsorships. They are now the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl and the eloquently-named Rose Bowl presented by Citi, the latter representing corporate America’s clever if transparent attempt to maintain the traditional mystique of the Rose Bowl while still making some extra money on the side.
Some bowl games have changed their name completely, such as the Peach Bowl, which is now the Chic-fil-A Bowl. These bowls have also been joined by a number of other bowl games, such as the Capital One Bowl and the Papajohns.com Bowl, that exist for the singular purpose of increasing the name recognition of their sponsors, who pay handsomely for such advertising.
The advertising connected with the bowl system has transformed the college football landscape by creating a way to make millions of dollars of revenue in a short period of time – over $400 million in about three weeks, to be exact. While fans obviously realize that the bowl games have become nothing more than commercial enterprises, few, if any, have spoken out and complained against the NCAA for selling out. This quiet submission to the commercialization of college football outlines the shape of the modern fan.
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