See, college athletes are not to accept a measly soda or cheeseburger or face some sort of penalty, but not during bowl week when these football players are spoiled with Best Buy gift cards, PlayStation 3's, flat screen tv's and other sweet stuff. Well, unless you go to the Sun Bowl where the main prize is a hair dryer.
Here are the gifts that the Mountain West bowl teams will be getting. This list comes from the Sports Business Journal.
New Mexico Bowl:
Gift suite, Oakley Eyepatch 2, Oakley beanie, New Era cap, Oakley Flak Pack 3.0, pen with box, Christmas ornament
So the pen set was a joke, too bad we don't know exactly what the gift suite is for. Hopefully it makes up for the other mediocre gifts.
New Orleans Bowl:
Samsung Galaxy tablet
ACCEPTABLE!
Poinsettia Bowl:
Best Buy gift card*, Tourneau watch, hooded sweatshirt, FlexFit cap
The gift cards are the way to go, let the players choose what they want.
Military Bowl:
Amazon Kindle Fire, Apple iPod nano, Deuce watch, LunaTik wristband (to hold iPod), beanie, Nike backpack.
This is possibly the best gifts out of any bowl game.
Las Vegas Bowl:
Gift suite, cap
Assuming the cap is about a $30 value, the gift suite should be worth around $400 or so.
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So, all of those backup players and walk-ons who make the traveling team get to walk home with those gifts. I could go off and be hypocritical and say that these bowl games take advantage of schools by forcing them to by over priced tickets and that the schools are really paying for these gifts. But I will not since schools earn so much money from television rights, so why not give these guys some stuff.
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