2011-2012 Bowl Games: The Top 5 Bowl Games for Player Swag This Season

One of the most underrated parts of the college football bowl season is all of the gifts the players get for showing up.

Typically the better of a bowl you get, the more stuff you get, and that stuff can cost a pretty penny.

Here are the five bowls that give away the best gifts. You can see the full list here.

Meineke Car Care Bowl

Turns out there are some benefits to playing at noon of New Year’s Eve. Players get a T-shirt, backpack, belt buckle and a Fossil watch—watches are given out at nearly every bowl game. Oh, and you get a 32-inch flat-screen television made by Toshiba.

Depending on the watch, that is around $700 dollars per player. Not too shabby.

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl

Oakley is another company that gives out a lot of its products at bowl games, and players who go to St. Petersburg will get a pair of sunglasses and a backpack from them, as well as a mini-helmet.

But they also got a Playstation 3! It doesn’t look like Beef ‘O’ Brady’s is contributing towards making sure these athletes complete their student responsibilities.

Any BCS Bowl

If your team goes to a BCS bowl, you’re guaranteed a watch made by either Fossil, Tourneau, Reactor or Kenneth Cole and some commemorative gear.

But there’s one thing that sets them apart and that is the “gift suite.” At a gift suite, companies have a bunch of booths, talk to the players and give them whatever they want. And since this is a BCS bowl the gifts are bound to be a lot nicer than the gift suites at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Champs Sports/Capital One Bowl

The reason these two are grouped together is because they give out the same thing—a Timely Watch Co. watch and a whopping $420 shopping trip to a local Best Buy.

Now instead of getting stuff they may or may not want or use, players can pick and choose what they want out of an entire store. It’s times like this that I wish I was the backup punter.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl

Another watch, a beanie, a backpack and a souvenir football are the designated items players get. but the bowl also has a gift suite—except this one is sponsored by Sony.

While we don’t know exactly how many different stations there are or what will be at them, chances are players will be picking up quite a bit of merchandise that could include a PlayStation 3, a television or a camera. BYU and Tulsa have to be excited to be playing in this game.