Since we have a lot of wise historians within our ranks here...
When did it start becoming common for corporate sponsors to tack on their names on the bowl games?
I can think of a few bowl games that had pretty classic names replaced completely by the name of the sponsor. I welcome any corrections!
Tangerine Bowl became the Russell Athletic Bowl
Citrus Bowl became the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
The Hall of Fame Bowl became the Outback Bowl
The Continental Tire Bowl became the Meineke Car Care Bowl then became the Belk Bowl
The Humanitarian Bowl became the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (a name upgrade in my opinion)
The Gator Bowl became the Taxslayer Bowl
The Peach Bowl became the Chick-fil-A Bowl then became the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Shall we start a BA all time most ridiculous bowl game names list?
I will whet your appetites with The Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl
The one I remember the most growing up was FedEx sponsoring the Orange Bowl. That was like that from the late 80s until just recently.
Tositos sponsored the Fiesta Bowl from the mid 90s until 2014.
USF&G sponsored the Sugar Bowl for about a decade in the 80s and early 90s until Nokia took that for another decade.
The Motor City Bowl was originally sponsored by the big three car manufacturers in Michigan (Ford, GM and Chrysler), though they were never really a title sponsor.