One of the sporting world’s best traditions has always been college football’s bowl season – a reward for teams that have done well throughout the season.

These postseason games are all about the teams involved. Well, at least they used to be.

In the past couple of years the college bowl system has fallen victim to the sponsorship buzzsaw – a move that has altered the name of bowl games in favor of the companies that sponsor them.

This move has taken away from the prestige of these games, bringing up the question: How much college football can corporate sponsorship disenchant?

This debauchery hit the hardest with schools like NIU, where finding a bowl game to play in usually seems like a caveman’s quest for fire.

Due to the lack of conference tie-ins with bowl games, NIU and mid-majors of the like must hope for an at-large bid. With the possibility of a trip to Boise, Idaho, NIU fans find themselves having a hard time putting a face to the bowl game.

What used to be the Humanitarian Bowl has been renamed the MPC Computers Bowl. Known as the bowl game played on Boise State’s blue-turfed field, this bowl game has become unrecognized due to its sponsor.

This problem isn’t limited to mid-majors, either. It also takes place with more storied bowl games as well.

Every Jan. 1, the Big Ten and SEC send their No. 2 teams to Orlando to compete in what used to be the Citrus Bowl.

Then Capital One decided to step in as its most recent sponsor, shortly thereafter electing to remove the title of Citrus Bowl and call it the Capital One Bowl.

Although not every bowl is named after a sponsor, this trend appears to keep rolling. Perhaps the most prestigious bowl outside of the Bowl Championship Series, the Cotton Bowl, has also fallen victim.

Unsponsored for the majority of its existence, the Cotton Bowl recently has found SBC as its sponsor. This appears to be the first step to renaming a bowl game in this money-driven phenomenon.

There is no need for this to happen. The importance of a bowl game is not being questioned, but why are corporations taking away from the luster of the individual bowl games?

Go back to the days where the bowl itself takes center stage and not the company sponsoring it. Let the fans watch the Tangerine Bowl and not the Champs Sports Bowl.

If these bowl games need a sponsor, one simple suggestion: The bowl game should be in front of the sponsor – like the Rose Bowl Presented by Citi.

Give the bowl system its integrity back.