Games have to work to stand out during the plethora of contests during bowl season.
One bowl did everything possible to startle viewers.
And a zombie mascot shocked fans during one college football bowl game.
Pop-Tarts Bowl pulls out all the stops to draw attention and entertain fans
The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams has made the bowl season feel like an afterthought to many fans.
Bowls must find a way to draw attention among the many forgettable contests.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando, Florida has had many names over the years since it debuted as the Blockbuster Bowl in 1990.
It was formally known as the Cheez-It Bowl until it picked up the beloved breakfast pastry as its title sponsor in 2023.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl leaned into the wacky to make headlines during bowl season.
A Strawberry Frosting Pop-Tart mascot was lowered into a toaster at the end of the bowl last season and eaten by the Kansas State Wildcats after they won the game.
This year a zombie Strawberry Pop-Tart mascot was brought back to life for the bowl.
OMG they brought back the dead Pop-Tart as a zombie I cannot pic.twitter.com/UmAhoKtbZe
— Kevin Flaherty (@KFlahertyKCSN) December 28, 2024
NCAA officials signed off on the bowl painting sprinkles into the white paint that formed the boundary around the playing field.
Goalposts were wrapped in a foil meant to resemble the metallic wrapper on a Pop-Tart.
The Pop-Tart Bowl featured one of the better matchups outside the playoffs this season with the Miami Hurricanes squaring off against the Iowa State Cyclones.
Miami quarterback Cam Ward broke the NCAA record for touchdown passes in the first half of the game.
He sat out the second half of the game in a move that caused an uproar among the media and fans.
An edible mascot is sacrificed into a giant toaster for the winning team
Iowa State won the Pop-Tarts Bowl in a shootout, 42-41.
The victors get the spoils in this bowl game.
Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht won game MVP honors and was given the responsibility of picking which Pop-Tart flavor to eat for the postgame celebration.
He chose cinnamon roll over wild berry, and hot fudge sundae.
“There’s only one,” Becht said. “Cinnamon roll.”
A mascot dressed as a cinnamon roll Pop-Tart was lowered into a giant post holding a sign that read, “Follow Your Dreams.”
The toaster produced a giant Pop-Tart that members of Iowa State ate for their post-game celebration.
Mouth Heaven gained another angel! 💙 #PopTartsBowl pic.twitter.com/0hkfozfgjU
— Pop-Tarts Bowl (@PopTartsBowl) December 29, 2024
Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell skipped the usual Gatorade bath after winning the game for having mini-Pop-Tarts dumped on him from a water cooler.
POP-TARTS DUMP!!! pic.twitter.com/KX7MTDBhUT
— Pop-Tarts Bowl (@PopTartsBowl) December 29, 2024
Iowa State received a trophy for winning the game that had a working toaster in the football at the top of it.
Pop-Tarts and the bowl set out to create as many viral moments on social media as possible to make the game stand out.
Miami’s mascot Sebastian the Ibis tried to take bites out of the hot fudge sundae mascot during the game.
“You have to have fun with them, because you want the players to be excited that they got your bowl game. And then you want different things around it so that people want to come in person, so that people want to watch it on television. It’s cute, the antics are fun,” NBC’s Nicole Auerbach said. “This bowl – they see that there’s a line somewhere of what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate in a bowl game, and they say, ‘Nope, we don’t see that. We’re going to go past that.’”
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
