The Insight Bowl is the Insight Bowl no longer, you might recall, and the game is apparently intent on taking neither our helpful suggestion of bringing back another Pizza Bowl nor Jason Kirk’s idea to name the game after one of Arizona’s chief exports. No, the bowl has gone and added a bunch of underscores to its Twitter handle instead, and opened the next step up to crowdsourcing in a viral marketing effort that will in no way end in heartbreak:

Insight Bowl is getting a new name. Tweet your guesses using #NameTheGame.

— Insight Bowl (@______Bowl) May 14, 2012

Please note that the bowl in no way indicates fan voting will dictate the outcome here, which, after seeing some of the responses, you’ll agree was a sage choice:

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The Insight Bowl trophy is awful, but as a former pizza bowl, the institution deserves protecting.

Lauded in this space just a month ago for clinging to its dot-com sponsor for a decade following the collapse of the tech bubble, the Insight Bowl suddenly finds itself set adrift, in a basket on a strange doorstep, with a note pinned on its blanket reading “free to good home, for money.” A quick adoption fact sheet, for those of you considering placing this lovable game  under your organization’s banner:

• Family history: Less than ideal. Cousin to the famously corrupt Fiesta Bowl, and at times seems neglected by caretakers. The website is relegated to a folder on the Fiesta Bowl’s site, and should interested parties click through to buy merchandise, they’re redirected to the Fiesta Bowl store, which is (sorry, OU fans ) currently splashed with Cowpoke victory swag, wall to wall, with a lone lousy banner ad strung up for Sooners products.

• Trauma history: Relentlessly awful trophy. Aired for a time on the NFL Network. Has been known to lash out at the teams themselves. Has not received all its shots, but after hosting Tim Brewster two years in a row you’re pretty much inoculated against the big stuff.

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The 2010 Insight Bowl trophy was a sight to behold. (AP)

The 2011 Insight Bowl is just a day away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out George Schroeder’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The Insight Bowl is sort of like the Fiesta Bowl (and is even played in the Fiesta Bowl’s former home), only smaller and dingier. You have to credit its survival instincts, however: How many other former bowl games named after dot-coms have retained their title sponsors?

• Where will this game be played? Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

• Golly, who plays there during the regular season? Don’t get cute, now.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET on Friday, December 30. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? At one point or another, four of the big six conference have had tie-ins with the Insight Bowl; current affiliated conferences are the Bigs Ten and 12.

• What about this year? We’re edging into the province of teams with respectable records: 7-5 Iowa and 9-3 Oklahoma will make the trek to Tempe.

• Who will call the game? Sean McDonough, Matt Millen and Heather Cox.

• You know, it’s only been a couple years, but I’m already running out of jokes regarding Matt Millen getting paid more money than I’ll make in five years to tell me how a football team should be doing things. This, we fear, is a lost cause. ESPN kept Craig James on the payroll until the bitter, drawn-out end, which says to us that smaller ridiculosities like Millen are just entirely beneath their line of sight.

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