The Arizona Bowl will soon have its mind on its money and money on its mind.
Snoop Dogg will sponsor the Arizona Bowl, with his and fellow rap icon Dr. Dre’s beverage company Gin & Juice becoming its presenting sponsor, Yahoo! Sports reported Monday. In turn, the Arizona Bowl will now be called the “Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop.”
“We are a little different from all the other bowls. We’re not afraid to take risks and do things outside of the box,” executive director of the Arizona Bowl Kym Adair said in a statement to Yahoo! Sports. “An alcohol brand has always been off the table for us until recently. Everybody in the stadium is drinking a beer or cocktail. It’s time for the industry to evolve.”
The bowl game, which is played at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, is relatively young, with the first edition being played in 2015. The Mountain West Conference and the MAC are the confrences who usually send representatives to the game, which was previously sponsored by Barstool Sports.
Snoop Dogg is reportedly expected to partake in the game’s broadcast and be featured in a musical element surrounding the game. In addition to the performances, a Chevy Impala could also be incorporated in some way during the bowl game as it’s featured on the “Gin and Juice” bottle logo. Top youth teams from California and Arizona are also expected to play each other ahead of the bowl game, with those games being called the “Snooper Bowl.”
The 17-time Grammy Award winner has long been active in the youth football scene in Southern California in addition to being a noted football fan. He created the Snoop Youth Football League in 2006, a Los Angeles-based league that has allowed over 60,000 inner-city children in the Los Angeles area to play football since its inception. He’s also an avid fan of USC and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and performed in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in 2022 when it returned to Los Angeles to be played at SoFi Stadium.
“I’ve sent many players through my SYFL to colleges and the NFL so it’s only fitting that I bring the ‘juice’ back to college football,” Snoop Dogg told Yahoo! Sports. “With Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, we’re going to make the Arizona Bowl into a game day experience like never before.”
It’s unclear what other modifications might be coming to the Arizona Bowl. The non-College Football Playoff bowls have undergone some changes in recent years, though, as more and more top players have dropped out of playing in those games.
[CFB official: Paying players could reverse trend of non-Playoff bowl game opt-outs]
As a result, some bowl games have upped their creativity. The most notable are the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and the Pop-Tarts Bowl. In the Duke Mayo’s Bowl, the head coach of the winning team has been bathed in Duke’s Mayo over the last few years. Meanwhile, the Pop-Tarts Bowl introduced a mascot of a Pop-Tart this past year that was “edible.” The winning team gets to eat the large Pop-Tart after the game.
The mascot for the Arizona Bowl is currently “Spike,” who has a football head while wearing eyeblack and a headband.
The 2024 Arizona Bowl is scheduled for Dec. 28.
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