‘Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl’ officially back: Bowl changing for College Football Playoff

Update, April 2014: Bowl officials confirmed the change to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“It got down to what is our history, what is our heritage, what is our tradition and how can we pay homage to that in our name,” [bowl president Gary] Stokan said.

“We undertook research to find out what is the best name and how it fits with the bowl. That’s how we got back to Peach. We felt it was important to the fans, to the staff and to the volunteers who have committed to the bowl through the years. So we paid homage to the history and the tradition of the bowl.”

And here’s the new logo:

Original, April 2013: The Chick-fil-A Bowl is set to become a part of the six-bowl College Football Playoff rotation, beginning in 2014. It’ll host its first national semifinal in 2017. The obvious issue: it’s the only one of the six most commonly called by its corporate sponsor’s company name, rather than by the name of a fruit or crop or activity or whatever.

The Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, and Fiesta are the other five. They all have title sponsors, and all were originally named after things that people wanted to sell, but they sound more romantic than SANDWICH SHOP.

Thus, from ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, who reports the change:

“They (the commissioners) want (the bowl names) to be parallel,” College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said.

This change will prove of zero inconvenience for anyone anywhere in SEC or ACC country, where the game is just as commonly referred to as “the Peach Bowl” anyway. I happen to think Chick-fil-A is more Atlanta than peaches are, since South Carolina is the real Peach state, but whatever.

Peach Bowl was the name it operated under until 1997, when Chick-fil-A tacked its name on the front. It dropped the Peach part after 2005, but never really dropped the Peach part.

This goes to show that Southern stubbornness can work its way back around to being correct, if you give it enough time. In certain cases.