College football’s bowl season is set to kick off with fans around the country set to tune in for the finale of their favorite team’s season.
Bowl season is a time for college football fans to enjoy their last glimpses of the gridiron until the following fall. The bowl games range from the historic – the "Granddaddy of Them All" as the Rose Bowl is affectionately known – to newer bowl games that trade head coaches’ traditional postgame Gatorade bath for being doused in substances like mayonnaise.
Bowl season also presents an opportunity for companies to build their brands by sponsoring games. Although details about exact sponsorship agreements can be hard to come by, companies may spend several hundred thousand dollars to get their brand name attached to a lower-tier bowl game, while title sponsorships for higher profile games like the prestigious New Year’s Six bowls can run into tens of millions of dollars.
Bowl games also tend to have additional sponsors and partners beyond those attached to the name of the bowl. The income is used to support local philanthropic endeavors as well as to make payments to the conferences that each participating team is a member of, which are in turn distributed to individual schools to support their intercollegiate athletic programs.
The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential will host a CFP Semifinal between the Michigan Wolverines and Alabama Crimson Tide. ((Photo by Ric Tapia/Icon Sportswire/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Here’s a look at each of this year’s bowl game matchups. All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.
Football legend Rob "Gronk" Gronkowski is set to host the LA Bowl, where he will sing the national anthem. Here, Gronk parties with the Cadets as Army takes on Navy at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on December 9, 2023. ((Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald via Getty) / Getty Images)
A view of the playing field with Diamond Head in the background during the second half of the EasyPost Hawaii Bowl at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex on December 24, 2022, in Honolulu, Hawaii. ((Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Wyoming Cowboys head coach Craig Bohl of the Wyoming Cowboys prepares for a french fry shower at the end of the 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. ((Photo by Loren Orr/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Maryland Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley is dunked with Duke's Mayo after defeating the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the 2022 the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina. ((Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Oregon Ducks wide receiver Chase Cota (23) celebrates a touchdown against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the 2022 Holiday Bowl. - The 2023 DIRECTV Holiday Bowl will air on FOX on Dec. 27 pitting the #15 Louisville Cardinals against the USC Trojans. ((Photo by Justin Fine/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
The Michigan State Spartans face off against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the 2019 New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. ((Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh celebrates winning the Big Ten Championship against the Iowa Hawkeyes on December 2, 2023 in Indianapolis, Ind. ((Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) holds up the MVP trophy and celebrates after winning the Pac-12 Championship Game presented by 76 between the Oregon Ducks and the Huskies on Dec. 1, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nev. ((Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) / Getty Images)