‘New’ Bowl Season brand brings with it 100 years of college football tradition
By KEVIN M c NAMARA
The American sporting landscape annually rallies around the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA and NHL playoffs, the World Cup and March Madness.
Now there is a push for a renewed focus on another prominent portion of the sports calendar, one that’s been serving up memorable moments for over a century. As fall ends and winter’s chill arrives, the buzz touches every corner of the country, from the Northeast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Miami. It’s one loyal sports fans have followed for years, generations even.
It’s Bowl Season.
When the college football fan thinks about the postseason, the focus understandably turns to the College Football Playoff. The national semifinals and title game showcase the crème de la crème, the top four teams fighting for a national championship.
But what about the teams that pushed those Final Four on all those Fall Saturdays? They don’t put away the pads, return to class and wait ’till next year. They prepare for meaningful games that captivate fans in markets around the country. Host cities and bowl committees work all year long to make sure student-athletes, coaches, parents and fans enjoy an unforgettable experience. Recordsetting numbers of TV viewers who can’t get enough football annually tune in.
It’s Bowl Season.
Now there is a new focus to highlight the bowl games that make up college football’s postseason. It’s called, quite appropriately, Bowl Season. Get ready, because you’re going to hear the term a lot.
“You’re going to see it everywhere, all season, and especially during Bowl Season itself,” said Nick
“We believe college football’s postseason is unlike any other in sports, embracing grand tradition and bringing enduring value to student-athletes.”
– NICK CARPARELLI Bowl Season Executive Director
Carparelli, the new executive director of Bowl Season — an organization that until this rebrand was known as the Football Bowl Association. “We believe college football’s postseason is unlike any other in sports, embracing grand tradition and bringing enduring value to student-athletes.”
Carparelli owns a long history in college football, first working in operations at Syracuse and Notre Dame before jumping to the NFL and helping Bill Belichick get his Super Bowl dynasty rolling in New England. For 10 years he ran the football side of the Big East Conference and received a first-hand glimpse inside the bowl system. Carparelli helped create the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium and the St. Petersburg Bowl and owns a unique perspective on just what the true meaning of the bowls can be.
“Bowl games have been around for 100 years and there are so many great stories to tell about the tremendous players and coaches involved over those decades of competition,“ he said. “I felt we needed a platform to share those stories and all of the positives that these meaningful matchups generate.”
possibilities excited the group because, as Carparelli said, “it’s not every day that you have an opportunity to launch a major sports brand.”
Crafting the message was vital, but ultimately quite simple. After tossing about many options, Marc ‘Jake’ Jacobson of 1919 Productions and Carparelli settled on the term that everyone kept coming back to: Bowl Season.
“In hindsight, the name ‘Bowl Season’ was a nobrainer,” Carparelli said. “In the end we didn’t want to out-smart ourselves. We felt the Bowl Season name captured our new identity perfectly and speaks directly to those who love the sport.”
A tag line put the bow on the package. Jacobson’s group came up with ‘A Celebration of College Football,’ a phrase that brings the entire post-season together in one unifying package, from the Music City and Citrus to the Sugar and Rose Bowls. Sports brand designer Joe Bosack led the way with the development of the new identity. The new icon Bosack created features a bowl-shaped stadium that offers a nod to the shape of a bowl game ring. Bosack also incorporated the icon into promotional animation videos and other eye-popping designs.
“That’s our message, our hook, that grounds everything,” Jacobson said. “That collective voice for all of the bowls owns strength.”
A 12-person Working Group of representatives from the bowl games, the Football Bowl Subdivision, the NCAA and ESPN came together and charged Carparelli with creating a new brand and polishing the product with a public relations campaign. The
Bowl Season will be featured on college football Saturday’s throughout the fall and emphasized once the bowl games actually kick off in December. The web address BowlSeason.com will serve as a promotional home for all of the bowls, an up-to-date bowl prediction hub and a trusted source for other college football news.
In order to push the brand into America’s TV rooms, the team is working with Tony Fay Public
Relations of Dallas. Fay’s company has assisted the College Football Playoff for several years and he’s clearly excited about selling the entire bowl system. Like so many fans, Fay recalls the big bowl games of his youth “when we loaded up on cold turkey sandwiches and watched incredible, memorable matchups.“
“We all share stories steeped in tradition about those entertaining games from mid-December through the first week of January,“ Fay said. “Getting to build on the legacy of Bowl Season is like a kid getting the key to the greatest toy box ever.“
The 2019-20 season saw the bowl roster expand to over 40 games in what was college football’s 150th campaign. These games are ingrained into the fabric of their communities, raising millions of charitable dollars for non-profits from Las Vegas to Annapolis, San Antonio to Honolulu, Pasadena to Miami.
Missy Setters is the executive director of the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. The bowl may be one of the smallest, but it packs a big punch. For 45 years the greater Shreveport community has rolled out the red carpet for players, coaches and fans. Sponsors for a parade, fan fest, tailgate and even an after-party help put on the show. The goal is to make sure everyone leaves town with sweet memories packed in their suitcases.
“It’s that way for all of the bowls,” said Setters. “When you first see the fans get to town, it’s beyond gratifying. That’s what you’ve worked all year for.”
Bowl Season’s collective message will emphasize the value and importance of the experience of teams fortunate enough to play in the postseason. The ‘Celebration of College Football’ will provide a deserved victory lap for student-athletes with Bowl Season building on the passion and emotion of the sport that fans will cherish forever.
Najee HARRIS
LEADING THE PACK: Alabama (35-24-3) is the winningest team in college football in terms of bowl victories. Southern Cal (34-17) ranks second.
