So please explain to me how Boise has had a (irrelevant] bowl game for a decade, in a sh**y stadium, that much farther north than Salt Lake City?
I mean this is ridiculous… Other places in the country not in the traditional moderate/warm weather original sites are also hosting.I cant track where all these bizarre named ones are playing. Gasparilla? What the hell is THAT? I mean they hold one at the insane location of Fenway Park, again further north than SLC, and arguably worse weather considering closeness to the winter Atlantic Ocean. One at Navy Stadium in Annapolis…one at Yankee Stadium… and worst of all ALBUQUERQUE.
We clearly have a highly supported program with decent $$ flying around as we saw in building the Ken Garff Memorial Shrine… err Red Zone.
Given the irrelevance of the bowl games;added to the fact that they are having trouble with a lack of bowl eligible team due to the “Oprah Effect” with bowl games already in play; it makes less than no sense to even pursue considering it.
I agree that it makes little sense to pursue a bowl in SLC, but it does make me wonder something. Are any bowls held in arenas where all alcohol sales are prohibited by law? That could be a definite problem for a draw of out of towners when considering RES.
The game in Boise was created to give the MWC Champ somewhere to play. I wouldn’t think a bowl game in SLC would ever be popular. It will be interesting if Utah can get a first round cfp home game around Dec. 20.
The Top of the Mountain bowl was at RES, was a JC bowl, IIRC. I think the predominant thinking is schools want to play in a warm weather destination, otherwise RES is not a good setting.
I have to admit the Idaho Potato Bowl lifted off the bottom of the barrel for bowl games, for me, for 2 reasons:
Teams played like defenses were limited to 10 players
Boise’s blue turf has been displaced on the ugly scale - Coastal Carolina’s hideous turquoise turf is the new worst, for me.
Hey at least Turquoise (fun fact that is just the French word for “Turkish”) is closer to green than neon blue. Have you not seen the abomination in CHeney, WA for Eastern Washington? talk about clawing your eyes out…
Pedantry time: it was created to give the Big West Champion a place to play after the Vegas bowl dropped them for the WAC Champion to be their new host team.
Fun fact: as of this year, Utah State (5) has more appearances in the bowl than Boise State (4).
Hey folks, I’m very grateful so many have chimed in on a non-muckraking post I created
I am aware of the history of the “whatever-in-boise” bowl, but it still begs the question of why anyone would want o oactually play in what is now one of the older “this means absolutely nothing” bowls. At least it’s name is a bit more recognizable now, as opposed to the Humanitarian bowl. In the last week we’ve had ~6 or 7 bowls I truly had no idea where the hell they were being played… as only the sponsor name seems to get used, with no reflection on the location itself. What the hall is s Gasparailla, anyway? At least the old “Poulan Weedeater Bowl” gave us something to yak about. When need to resurrect the wordy, but identifiable “Astro Bluebonnet Bowl”.