The Meineke Car Care Bowl Gives Fans a Great Experience

This year I saw the Meineke Car Care Bowl at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The game matches a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference versus one from the Big East Conference. In my game, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons from the ACC rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to post a 24-10 victory.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl has roots back to 2002, when it started as the Queen City Bowl. It picked up a tire manufacturer as its title sponsor and was known as the Continental Tire Bowl before Meineke took over the rights in 2006.

While the name does not roll off the tongue like the Rose Bowl or the Orange Bowl, the Meineke Car Care bowl has produced some exciting games in its brief history. The 2006 game came down to the last play, as a 37-yard field goal lifted Boston College to a 25-24 win over Navy. The ACC has owned the Meineke Car Care Bowl, winning five of the six contests.

Bowl games serve as a reward for teams that finished with good seasons. They also serve as a reward for the fan bases of the respective schools, giving loyal supporters a good excuse to go out of town during the holidays. One of the most important contributing factors for picking teams for a bowl game is the school's reputation for bringing fans to an event. If two teams have similar records but one school consistently brings 25,000 fans to bowl games that team will likely get the nod.

The University of Connecticut and its fans had an excellent showing for the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Despite not being a major bowl in a holiday hot spot, the University of Connecticut sold out its allotment of 12,000 tickets. Meanwhile, Wake Forest, located about 90 minutes away in Winston-Salem, sold over 20,000 tickets before the university stopped taking orders.

Like many areas of the country, the piedmont area of North Carolina suffered a terrible drought during 2007. Most cities in the region were between 10 and 20 inches below normal rainfall totals. So, it was a mixed blessing when rain hit the area the day before the Meineke Car Care Bowl.