College bowl sponsorship and the increased commercialization of amateur sports

This study critiques the increased economic centrality and symbolic visibility of corporate sponsors to college football bowl games, focusing especially on the 1996 "Tostitos"; Fiesta Bowl. The paper argues that sponsorship has three major effects on college football: embedding it in tele‐spectacle, subordinating it to the commercial function, and perpetuating elitism. The paper argues that corporate sponsorship further devalues the integrity and essence of amateur sports.