Hooters and NCAA Football: Together at Last

By Spencer Hall
What took this so long to happen? You: Young football program in Florida with an owl for a mascot. Them: A storied restaurant franchise famous for tight tank tops, beer, and chicken wings that happens to use an owl for their corporate symbol.
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Tinder, meet flame:
[quote="The Palm Beach Post"]FAU (Florida Atlanta University) students advocating for Hooters to buy naming rights are just now contacting corporate headquarters and getting together a petition.
“Obviously you’re going to have some opposition with people thinking Hooters is derogatory toward women, but right now FAU doesn’t have a lot of options and people should be educated enough to know it’s just a restaurant,” Butler said. [/quote]
Florida Atlanta students want Hooters to buy the naming rights to Florida Atlantic’s football stadium, ensuring the Owls would be playing at Hooters Stadium. Bad math does not cover how badly I want this to happen, even if the company’s interest in the idea has been tepid at best.
[quote="The PBP, again,"]A South Florida spokesman said the stadium price tag was a little high for the restaurant chain. “It would be a neat thought though to have the naming rights,” Hooters representative Jim Upchurch said.[/quote]
Neat? I’m certain he meant “a completely awesome, unbelievably certain- to-happen” thought. Not only would it be a fabulous reminder that Florida is the state that shame forgot*, but it would force ESPN announcers to say “Hooters Stadium” on air. Hearing the gentlemanly Bill Curry say that on air would satisfy our sweet tooth for ridiculous irony for a year and a half at least.
FAU Coach Howard Schnellenberger doesn’t care how this happens, so long as it involves him zipping his pants before he takes the field.

(*Full disclosure: I lived in Florida for six and a half years, have a UF degree, and adore the place. Being shameless has its advantages. )↵