What happened to the Outback Bowl? Life, I suppose. Quietly and with little warning, it was announced the Bloomin’ Onion slinging restaurant chain wouldn’t be sponsoring the game after an impressive 26-year run.
The contest won’t be joining the haunted college football bowl game graveyard. Instead, it will be known as the terribly uninspired Tampa Bay Bowl for the time being. If you think the name is bad, get a load of the logo. Seriously, that’s the best you could come up with? Even worse was the bowl game’s leaders trying to spin this as a positive.
“We are thrilled about our new Tampa Bay Bowl logo and name, which is a reflection of our 36-year relationship with the vibrant Tampa Bay region as one of the most exciting and hospitable destinations of any college bowl game,” Bowl Chair Rita Lowman opined.
Come on, no halfway intelligent person could possibly be thrilled about this name and logo. This is like someone eating dirt and then telling you about how great all the minerals are. Let’s not kid ourselves.
Anyway, there is no difference between the Tampa Bay Bowl and Outback Bowl. It is going to be played on New Year’s Day at 12:30pm. The location is the same. And yet, it will still feel weird.
As for on-field action, the Outback Bowl is arguably most well-known for THAT Jadeveon Clowney hit. However, the contest pits a good SEC team against a Big Team side that has usually either over- or under-achieved. It’s not always a good game, but most years it’s entertaining enough.
Plus, that 9am PST start time on New Year’s Day is awesome. It just feels like the holidays. Who’s playing isn’t irrelevant. Between the Outback Bowl and Gator Bowl, one game has to be good enough to watch.
Related: 5 things you may not remember about defunct college football bowl games in the modern era
Here’s why what happened to the Outback Bowl matters
Old timers bemoan how college football bowl games aren’t named after quirky geographical traits of the host city. It’s a fair gripe, but the Outback Bowl felt like a compromise to that. Yes, it was an exercise in corporate branding. However, it wasn’t nearly as gross as say the Champ Sports Bowl, the Russell Athletic Bowl, the Camping World Bowl or the Cheez-It Bowl. Wait, all of those are the same game.
Prior to being the Outback Bowl, the game was known as the Hall of Fame Bowl and was somehow associated with the long forgotten original College Football Hall of Fame located in suburban Cincinnati. Eventually, the Australian steakhouse took over in 1996 and the partnership has been good, all things considered. It’s also nice to have legitimate businesses sponsoring bowl games as opposed to the riffraff now throwing their dollars at these events in hopes of legitimizing themselves.
And that’s why what happened to the Outback Bowl matters. Corporate sponsors are going to be a part of sports. Since that is the case, it is far better they be real companies instead of crypto exchanges, monthly box clubs, hologram bracelets or whatever dumb stuff people are throwing their money away on these days. At least when you dine at Outback, you get a meal for your cash.
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