It was only a matter of time before this happened, the first ever college football bowl game named after a human being. After all, we’ve already had, for several years, the: Beef O’Brady’s Bowl, San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, GalleryFurniture.com Bowl, Dollar General Bowl, Carquest Bowl and a bowl staged in the Bahamas, sponsored by a Chicago suburb.
So at this point, hey, why not? Saturday, December 18th we’ll see the inaugural edition of The Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl! Here’s the late night host and comedian making the announcement on his show last night (complete with a drum line!):
Finally, a college football bowl named after a human being…the inaugural Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl on December 18th at @SoFiStadium pic.twitter.com/SylNjHUPK2
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) June 17, 2021
It will be staged at the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the home of the LA Rams and LA Chargers. The Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl will feature Mountain West’s No. 1 versus the Pac-12’s No. 5, and it will kick off at 4:30 PST. (Televised on ABC of course).
“Stan Kroenke designed Hollywood Park to be a sports and entertainment destination for Angelenos and visitors from across the world to enjoy. We cannot think of a better way to bring sports and entertainment together than by collaborating with celebrated late-night host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel on our collegiate bowl game,” said Jason Gannon, executive director, Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl.
“Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl will not only bring an incredible game day experience to fans, but it will also focus on supporting our community 365 days a year.”
It took me about half a day to realize this wasn’t a joke. I really thought this was some kind of publicity stunt or something. And before any of you purists go and say, “well isn’t this desecrating the romanticism of bowl games.” You do know how and why bowl games were invented, right?
Literally, to help boost the sale of hotel rooms at a time when travel is traditionally slow. You can even find a Sugar Bowl press release that says this overtly. So where Kimmel is going right now with this- it’s just the next logical step.
“Never before has a bowl game been named after a human being (as far as I know, I didn’t check). On December 18, my dream of being forever enshrined alongside orange, rose, cotton and peach comes true,” said Jimmy Kimmel.
I typically don’t find any bowl games staged before Boxing Day to be worth watching or compelling, but hey, I still love this concept.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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