The process of bestowing gifts on college football players and coaches participating in bowl games has evolved over the decades from duffle bags and T-shirts to customized items and experiences.
Since 2006, Sports Business Journal has tracked the gifts that college football bowl committees have provided to the participants of their respective Football Bowl Subdivision games.
The NCAA allows the committees to provide each participant with gifts totaling a combined maximum value of $550. Additional packages can be, and usually are, purchased by the school.
The majority of committees provide players and coaches with an opportunity to select items from a gift suite set up on campus, in the bowl’s host team hotels, or online prior to the game.
Carrollton, Texas-based Performance Award Center oversees the gift-giving process for more than half of the bowl committees, including all the playoff games and the national championship game.
While gift package stalwarts such as Oakley, JLab and University Fancards each have a sizable presence, many committees have switched to a hybrid process that involves both the gift suite and a unique, customized experience.
Many of the bowl organizing committees have turned the practice into an experience all its own, integrating local vendors and venues, offering personalized items and sometimes extending the gift distribution over the entire time the schools are in town for the game.
Here are some gifts and/or experiences that stood out this bowl season.
College Football Bowl Gifts & Experiences
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Teams will take department store shopping sprees while in town for the game.
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl and Go Bowling Military Bowl
Veterans Bowl players and coaches will be treated to a personally fitted blazer from Reveal Suits. State & Liberty Clothing Co. will provide the same gift to Military Bowl participants.
Kinder’s Texas Bowl and Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl
Texas Bowl players and coaches will receive a personalized cowboy hat with uniform number and initials from The Hat Store. The committee in Frisco will provide its participants with a similarly personalized Justin cowboy hat, as it has done every year since the game’s 2017 debut.
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl
Participants will work with Majorwavez Lab to personalize Nike Air Jordan 1 sneakers with custom Las Vegas scenes, right down to choosing one of about 25 shoelace styles. They also will be able to design caps from Patched, using five models on which they will be able to put Las Vegas-themed patches of their choosing.
StaffDNA Cure Bowl
Participants in the Orlando-based game will receive a full-day ticket to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure and to SeaWorld Orlando.
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and Rate Bowl
The Fiesta Bowl Foundation, which operates both games, will let participants design their own scent with Scircle, an AI-powered fragrance platform.
Wasabi Fenway Bowl
The bowl will offer a Victus Sports baseball bat engraved with each player’s school’s logo and his name and uniform number.