First Capital One took over the Citrus Bowl, then Chick-fil-A took over the Peach Bowl.
A corporate sponsorship will claim another traditional bowl name, as one of college football’s longest running bowl games will drop its traditional name next season. Say good-bye to the Gator Bowl, and say hello to the TaxSlayer.com Bowl.
TaxSlayer.com became the bowl game’s official sponsor in 2012, but it kept the Gator Bowl title in the name of the game. That will change next season, when the game drops “Gator” from the name and will rebrand as the TaxSlayer.com Bowl. In addition, the game will move from the traditional January 1 date to one day later, on January 2.
The Gator Bowl has bowl tie-in deals with the Big Ten and SEC. Last season’s game saw Nebraska clip Georgia, 24-19. It was the second straight win for the Big Ten over the SEC in the Jacksonville-based bowl game. Northwestern edged Mississippi State the previous season.
Corporate sponsorships are in place for almost every bowl game and are just as commonly integrated into the bowl’s name and logo. Fortunately, it seems as though the biggest bowl games out there should be holding on to their traditional names for a while. The Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta all appear safe from this disappointing trend, as does the Cotton Bowl.
Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com was first to report (via Twitter) the name change for the bowl game.