When the Minnesota and Virginia Tech football teams meet in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 3, the winning coach may want to have a change of clothes handy, as tradition calls for the customary Gatorade bath after the final whistle to get replaced by a vat of Duke’s Mayo. In Boise, for the December 23 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, it’s a batch of freshly made French fries. Sometimes, of course, the winners get to eat, such as after the Pop-Tarts Bowl on December 28 in Orlando, when the winning team chooses which flavor of the bowl’s “edible mascot” players devour.
These stunts and plenty more — let’s not forget Cheez-It hosting a themed wedding officiated by mascot Ched-Z during the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl — have come to help define the college football bowl season, now up to 47 postseason or bowl games, with seven of …