First “bitter and hateful” was probably a bit much on my part. Just because the team is losing it is not the end of the world. On the subject of corporate sponsors, I have at least some experience in getting sponsors for PBS programs and for non-profit events. I started doing some of that in the late 80s and still do. While it might appear that you can get a sponsor for anything, when you actually try it is MUCH harder. In the late 80s, you could make just a couple of calls and come up with a sponsor or two. In the 90s, you needed to have a nice looking package of facts. Now, if you don’t have a professionally produced multimedia presentation, no one will listen. They want to know how many eyeballs they are buying. The large companies want really big events only. Smaller companies don’t have the dollars to buy naming rights. With the mid-sized companies, you not only need enough eyeballs for the price, they have to be the RIGHT eyeballs for their market. And all of them are told daily by other potential beneficiaries that THEY are the right buy. There was a time when companies wanted made large charitable donations for good PR. Now, those companies get hammered by their stockholders for doing just that! Fund raising today is very, very difficult. As for the bowl being a ratings problem, I really doubt that. I don’t remember the exact details, but at least one of NT’s New Orlean’s Bowl appearances was the then highest rated bowl ever one ESPN2. As a general rule, college football gets higher ratings on Fridays than Tuesdays. ESPN would not have agreed to moving the game unless they thought the viewers would be there. The bottom line is someone did a lot of very hard work to get a sponsor for the bowl. Bowls without sponsors do not last. And, again I point out no one turned down going to the Weed Eater bowl because of the funny name!