Iowa draws the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in College Football News 2022 bowl predictions
Coach Kirk Ferentz better have a rain coat!
Back in June, College Football News projected the bowl game for every Big Ten team in the upcoming season. Of course, the Hawkeyes were bowling, but it wasn’t in the most glamorous of bowl games. Sure, the TransPerfect Music City Bowl has a history of upsets and Ole Miss could be a very good opponent, but, again, it isn’t really the most exciting bowl game.
In CFN’s latest bowl game predictions, they gave Iowa a spot in a game that depending on your own personal opinion, could be the best non New Year’s Six bowl game. Iowa will see ACC contender Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl!
The Duke’s Mayo Bowl has gone through a lot of names and gimmicks since its inception in 2002, starting out as the Queen City Bowl, a working title that was never actually used. The folks in charge of the naming rights apparently preferred their matchups to have a cars theme to them, going by the Continental Tire Bowl from 2002-2004, then the Meineke Car Care Bowl for the rest of that decade.
Thankfully, there was some restraint and we didn’t get the Disney Pixar Cars 2 Bowl in 2011. What we instead got for the next decade was the Belk Bowl, a yearly nominee for the “most forgettable bowl game name” award.
In 2020, a year not known for many good things, the good folks at Duke’s Mayo gave us a little light to end our year taking over the sponsorship from Belk. Many snickered at the name Duke’s Mayo Bowl because of its silly name. It is a silly name, but early on the game has endeared the hearts of even the grinchiest of football fans.
Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz broke the internet after he BROKE the glass trophy following the Badgers’ 42-28 victory over Wake Forest. The makeshift trophy with a bottle of Duke’s mayonnaise on top of the trophy stand was glorious. The game really became a cult classic last year, though. Both South Carolina coach Shane Beamer and North Carolina skipper Mack Brown agreed to a post-victory mayo shower, the one thing fans cried for after last contest.
Coach Beamer indeed received a bath in mayonnaise, as well as a knock to the back of the head, in either the best or most disgusting scene of the season. For fans like me, it’s everything we could have imagined it. Kirk Ferentz would have the opportunity to forever cement his name in college football lore as the second coach to receive such an honor.
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