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Top 10 Random College Football Bowl Names For 2014

DENVER (CBS4) - College bowl season is here, and this year marks the debut of the new College Football Playoff and "New Year's Six" (replacing the old BCS Bowl games).

STATS AND RECAPS: Bowl Games Schedule, Matchups

There are also five completely new bowl games, and several that have changed sponsors (For example, the randomly popular Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl is now the Betcoin St. Petersburg Bowl).

This is one of many of the bowls that don't exactly roll off the tongue (San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl), and even the traditional bowls have long sponsor names attached (the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual).

Here are my Top 10 Random College Football Bowl Names For 2014:

10. Miami Beach Bowl
Dec. 20: BYU Cougars (8-4) vs. Memphis Tigers (9-3)
One of the new bowls this year and part of a new trend where a city/area puts its name on a bowl game as opposed to random regional sponsor you may have never heard of. At least with the Miami Beach Bowl there is no confusion as to where it is played.

9. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Dec. 20: Western Michigan Broncos (8-4) vs. Air Force Falcons (9-3)
Sponsored by the Idaho Potato Commission, a yearly reminder that Idaho grows potatoes.

8. Boca Raton Bowl
Dec. 23: Marshall Thundering Herd (12-1) vs. Northern Illinois Huskies (11-2)
Like the Miami Beach Bowl, only that Boca Raton is a city of about 90,000 in Palm Beach County, Florida, that -- if you are like me -- you probably couldn't pinpoint on a map.

7. Zaxby's Heart Of Dallas Bowl
Dec. 20: Illinois Fighting Illini (6-6) vs. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (8-5)
First question, what is Zaxby's? Answer: It's a chicken wings and chicken fingers restaurant with 600 locations in the southeastern United States. Second question, can we get one in Colorado?

6. Quick Lane Bowl
Dec. 26: Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-5) vs. North Carolina Tar Heels (6-6)
Another new bowl this year, it replaces the Little Caesar's (Pizza! Pizza!) Bowl. The bowl will be played in Detroit, is backed by the Detroit Lions, and sponsored by Ford Motor Company (which owns Quick Lane).

5. Belk Bowl
Dec. 30: Georgia Bulldogs (9-3) vs. Louisville Cardinals (9-3)
Not familiar with Belk? I wasn't either. Belk is a department store based out of North Carolina that, according to Wikipedia, is the largest family owned and operated department store in the nation. (The bowl is played in Charlotte).

4. Foster Farms Bowl
Dec. 30: Maryland Terrapins vs. Stanford Cardinal
The latest of the odd-named bowl games in San Francisco, this replaces the bowl that at times has been known as the Fight Hunger Bowl, Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, Emerald Bowl, Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl and San Francisco Bowl. I think most people will just call this the Chicken Bowl. Speaking of chicken ...

3. Popeyes Bahamas Bowl
Dec. 24: Central Michigan Chippewas vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
No idea why a fast food chicken restaurant is sponsoring a bowl game in the Bahamas, but if you don't make it to one of the big bowls, you can't really complain about a Christmas Eve trip to the Bahamas. Central Michigan certainly wasn't:

2014 CMU Football Bowl Players Reaction by Jay McDowell on YouTube

2. Raycom Media Camellia Bowl
Dec. 20: South Alabama Jaguars vs. Bowling Green Falcons
This is a new bowl this year, but the Camellia Bowl was previously played in both Sacramento in the 1960-70s and Louisiana in 1948. The 2014 version will be played in Alabama, where appropriately the state flower is the camellia.

1. Duck Commander Independence Bowl
Dec. 27: Miami Hurricanes vs. South Carolina Gamecocks
The Independence Bowl has been around since 1976 with sponsors ranging from power tools to hotels to a skin care company. QUACK! New in 2014, Duck Commander: the Robertson family company that makes duck hunting equipment including duck call instruments, but is best known now because of the hit reality show Duck Dynasty.
Fun fact: Phil Robertson was the quarterback at Louisiana Tech right before Terry Bradshaw...

Terry Bradshaw and 'Duck Dynasty's' Phil Robertson reunited by FOX Sports on YouTube

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