Going bowling by Joey Martin - posted Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 @ 2:25 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  It begins. December 15 at noon to be exact. The Gildan New Mexico Bowl kicks off the bowl season, while the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (is the trophy a spud?) follows at 3:30 p.m. Then we are in for 33 bowls over the next the next 23 days. Every bowl game will have a sponsor. Although I do have to give some props to the Cotton Bowl which is now the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Heart of Dallas is a nonprofit that's all of 65 days old, formed with the intention of raising money that will be dispensed to the likes of MDHA and other local charities. And it will be a year-round entity with corporate support that happens to have a bowl game. At least it's not self-serving. I'm still shocked there is no Wal-Mart Bowl. If the state of Arkansas ever lands a bowl, you can bet that will be the name. Of course it would only be fitting that three-fourths of the concession stands would not have anyone working there and the express ticket lane would have an extended family of 50 waiting to walk through the gate. I was actually wondering what Gildan was, and a quick look at their Web site informed me that the company sells T-shirts, sport shirts and fleece as undecorated blanks, which are subsequently decorated by screenprinters with designs and logos. By the way, the New Mexico Bowl is New Mexico's only annually nationally televised sporting event. The AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl was established in 1976 and named the Independence Bowl because it debuted during the nation's Bicentennial year with McNeese State defeating Tulsa, 20-16. The attendance was 19,164. Shreveport is the smallest market currently hosting a bowl game. But Shreveport bowl officials have to be excited about having Louisiana-Monroe taking on Ohio (although ULM against Louisiana Tech would have put them through the roof). Yes, Tech should be in a bowl game. The way deals are made or leaked beforehand, surely there had to be a way to find out what the likelihood of Tech playing in a bigger bowl would have been. It's unfortunate the Bulldogs will not be practicing any more. It's even more unfortunate we don't have ULM against Louisiana Tech. That would have been great for north Louisiana, and a better bowl game than Northern Illinois against Florida State or Louisville against Florida. There are 70 out of 124 teams that are eligible to fill one of the 62 open bowl slots this postseason. There were 52 programs that were removed from contention, either with guaranteed losing records or due to NCAA violations. And don't think for a minute it's not about the money. No conference lost money on bowls in the 2011-12 bowl season. The lowest net return was $1,066,190 to the Mountain West Conference, the highest was $30,826,027 to the SEC. The five BCS games had a bowl payout of $192,004,432, with the 30 non-BCS games paying out $98,512,458. After expenses, intercollegiate football had a net revenue of $179,896,463. Of course the teams prosper as well, not just in money. There are plenty of gifts for the players that go along with the invite, which is only right, considering they are the ones responsible for the school being there. Hey, Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen received a guitar last December at the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville. OK, some of the bowls hit sour notes this year. But to keep it in perspective, there's this story. Raycom Sports president and CEO Ken Haynes was scheduled to make the formal Charlotte, N.C., pitch for a bowl game (eventually the Belk Bowl) to the NCAA Bowl Certification Committee on Sept. 11, 2001 in Philadelphia. But just before that 10:45 a.m. scheduled meeting, the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. took place, and Haynes was the one that informed the group of athletic directors and NCAA staffers of the attacks. After a few brief comments, that meeting was cancelled, and it wasn't until May of the following year that he made what was a successful presentation. Bids to the first Belk Bowl were not extended until Sunday, Dec. 8 to Virginia and West Virgina. In one week, the game was sold out and 73,535 — still the second-largest in Belk Bowl history — was in attendance. The sellout is believed to be the fastest ever for a first-year bowl game.