Name That Game ... Fast
By BEN WALKER
AP National Writer
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The big matchup between Ohio State and Florida has almost everything that college football could want: No. 1 vs. No. 2, the Heisman Trophy winner, dazzling pageantry, neat traditions and a sparkling new stadium.
Only one thing is really missing. Namely, a catchy name.
“Bowl Championship Series national championship game — it’s a little long,��? Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said diplomatically. “It’d be nice to have something that would brand it, something that resonates."
In other words, even Poinsettia Bowl sounds better than the BCS national championship game. So do the Salad, Cigar and Astro-Bluebonnet bowls from long ago. Heck, even Division III has the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
But what?
“It should be something like ‘Super Bowl’ but one level below because the NFL already took that. They stole it, I think. They don’t have bowls in the NFL,��? Florida receiver Jemalle Cornelius said.
“I’m trying to think of a word that means the same thing, but not quite. It’s not easy to come up
with something."
Bonanza Bowl?
Blitz Bowl?
Big Bowl?
“I don’t like those at all,��? Cornelius said.
Those in charge are equally stumped. This is the first season a title bowl is being played, and the name game posed quite a challenge.
Read on ....
“The people in the BCS world, including commissioners, Fox television people and others, have talked at length about a monicker for the national championship game,��? BCS administrator Bill Hancock said. “Probably 300 or more ideas were suggested and considered. In the end, none of them felt appropriate; they seemed either contrived or hokey.��?
“So the group decided to wait and let it evolve,��? he said. “My feeling is that someday someone’s daughter, or a journalist or a linebacker will come up with something perfect.��?
Don’t laugh. That’s how “Super Bowl��? came about.
It was officially the AFL-NFL World Championship Game in the 1960s. Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted “The Big One��? and that got nixed. The late Lamar Hunt, one of the AFL founders, offered “Super Bowl��? as a short-term solution.
He got the idea after watching his daughter bounce a SuperBall. Good thing he didn’t notice her playing with a Slinky.
OK, back to college and Monday night’s matchup.
“They should call it the ‘Who’s No. 1? Bowl��? LSU linebacker Ali Highsmith said before the Tigers romped past Notre Dame 41-14 in the Sugar.
Next year, the BCS title game will be played in New Orleans, part of a rotation that includes the sites of the Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls.
Ohio State punter A.J. Trapasso liked the idea of alternating names.
“They should vary it, depending on where it’s played. I mean, I’d be fine if the national championship game was called the Peach Bowl, if that’s where it was,��? he said. “Nothing against the Peach Bowl.��?
Florida played in the Peach — now renamed the Chick-fil-A Bowl — two seasons ago. The Gators are glad to be in this game, whatever it goes by.
“I mean, national championship says it all,��? offensive lineman Steve Rissler said. “But couldn’t they come up with a better name?��?
Other bowls had it easy.
A sports editor in New Orleans gave the Sugar Bowl its name because Louisiana was among the nation’s top producers of sugarcane. An oilman came up with the Cotton Bowl because the crop was so abundant around Dallas.
The Rose Bowl game emerged from the Tournament of Roses parade — a celebration that was originally patterned after the “Battle of the Flowers��? festival in Nice, France.
When a new bowl came to Arizona in 1971, a name-the-game contest drew more than 6,500 entries. Of them, 73 proposed “Fiesta Bowl.��? In a blind draw, Gary Keltner was picked as the winner.
“I wanted something that was original, sounded like fun and had a Southwestern feel,��? Keltner recalled.
Keltner won lifetime tickets to the Fiesta Bowl. He went this week when Boise State upset Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime.
The Phoenix attorney is thinking about going to the BCS national championship game. He’s also thinking about what it
should be called.
“They definitely need a new name,��? he said. “It shouldn’t be a thing and it shouldn’t be tied to a place, like Citrus or Cotton.��?
“What they ought to be looking for is one word, something with power and pizzaz. I’m not suggesting this or saying this is the answer,��? he said, “but maybe ‘Titan Bowl’ would work.��?