Seventy-eight of the 130 FBS teams will compete in 39 bowl games this season (not including the national championship). There aren't too many bowl games.
Since bowl season began exploding in the 1990s, there have been relentless, often violent, complaints of too much football. Chew on that: People are complaining about too much college football.
If you don't like football, don't watch it.
Don't watch Utah State vs. North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl. Don't watch Arizona State vs. Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech in the Meineke Car Care Bowl or Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan in the Camellia Bowl.
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There aren't too many bowl games. There are, however, too many bowl games with stupid names. Here are five bygone bowl games that should return:
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Oil Bowl
The Oil Bowl was held on New Year's Day in 1944, 1946 and 1947 and folded for a variety of reasons, most notably financial issues and poor weather at Rice Field in Houston.
The 1944 event was technically not a true bowl game because both Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now Louisiana) and Arkansas-Monticello used dozens of players from other schools, including host school Rice.
Georgia defeated Tulsa in the 1946 game and Georgia Tech beat Saint Mary's (Calif.) in 1947.
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Haka Bowl
The Haka Bowl is the lone bowl on this list that was never played. The game, to be played at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, was scheduled to be the first non-United States bowl game to occur since the Bacardi Bowl in Cuba in 1946.
Named for the country's traditional Māori haka dance, the game was slated to feature the third-place teams from the Pac-10 and WAC on Dec. 27, 1996. However, the Haka Bowl committee could not meet the $1.5-million payout requirement for participating teams. There would not be a bowl game played outside the United States until the International Bowl in Toronto in 2007.
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Salad Bowl
Everyone loves a (side) salad bowl. Not too deep, not too flashy and not so big that all the croutons get flushed to the bottom. Unfortunately for the folks at the Phoenix Kiwanis Club, not everyone liked their Salad Bowl.
The nonprofit organization ran the Salad Bowl to benefit underprivileged youth from 1948-55. (The final four years did not include college teams.) It was played at Montgomery Stadium on the grounds of now-closed Phoenix Union High School and played annually on New Year's Day except 1950 (Jan. 2).
After Arizona, Arizona State, Drake and others participated from 1948-1952, various all-star teams competed until its demise following the 1955 season.
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Gotham Bowl
The Gotham Bowl had a great name and great intentions. It was, however, a complete disaster.
It was held in New York City in 1961 and 1962 to raise money for March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization that supports the health of mothers and babies. The committee's first attempt at the bowl, in 1960, failed when Oregon State accepted an invitation but an opponent could not be found.
Baylor defeated Utah State in 1961 before a crowd of fewer than 15,000 people in the cavernous 55,000-seat Polo Grounds and Nebraska beat Miami (FL) in 1962 before an even smaller crowd, estimated around 7,000, at Yankee Stadium.
Countless financial and logistical issues doomed the bowl in its three years and it was scrapped after the 1962 game.
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Bacardi Bowl
Also referred to as the Rhuma Bowl (and Cigar Bowl to a lesser extent), the Bacardi Bowl was the first bowl game played outside the United States.
It only featured a matchup of two American colleges one time (Auburn vs. Villanova, 1937) but was still a popular and unique event at Tropical Stadium in Havana, Cuba. The inaugural game was played on Christmas Day in 1907; LSU throttled Havana University, 56-0. It the first of seven Bacardi Bowl games until 1946.
An eighth game, between Rollins College and the Cuban Navy, was canceled in 1938 after a naval air accident in Colombia. Tulane (1910), Mississippi State (January 1912), Florida (December 1912), Ole Miss (1921), Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern, October, and December, 1939) and Southern Miss (1946) also participated in the game.
