Oklahoma football: Good-bye Insight Bowl

The Insight Bowl is no more — at least the name. The Fiesta Bowl’s little brother has lost its title sponsor. Insight Enterprises Inc., based in Tempe, Ariz., has sponsored the bowl game since 1997. The game began in 1989 as the Copper Bowl.

Thus OU figures to have played in the final bowl game with the Insight name. The Sooners beat Iowa 31-14 on Dec. 30 in Tempe.

The Fiesta Bowl owns and runs the Insight Bowl and now will seek a replacement sponsor. A well-heeled sponsor is important; the Insight Bowl increased its payout to participating teams to $6.65 million (combined) two years ago, passing the Holiday Bowl in the Big 12′s pecking order.

But finding a sponsor might be difficult, for this reason. Did Insight Enterprises Inc. gets its money’s worth? Here’s one way to answer the question. Do you know what Insight Enterprises is? I don’t. And I’ve covered two Insight Bowls, plus made four trips to the Fiesta Bowl, with an Insight Bowl being run alongside even if there wasn’t an Oklahoma team involved.

I know the original Insight Bowls were called Insight.com Bowl. But I don’t know what Insight Enterprises is. So I looked it up. Insight Enterprises is an information technology outsourcing business.  It’s listed among the Fortune 500 companies.

I don’t know if I know much more than I knew before I looked it up. I don’t know exactly what information technology outsourcing is, but people who need to know probably know.

But why would a company spend sponsorship dollars on putting its name on a bowl game, if the company message doesn’t get delivered any better than what Insight encountered? Maybe it was a community outreach expenditure for Insight. Giving back to the city of Tempe, which hosts the Insight Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium.

I ran a quick check to see how many bowl sponsors were suffering from an identity crisis. Most of the bowls I either knew the company or you could figure it out. Like R&L Carriers (New Orleans Bowl), which obviously is some sort of trucking company, and  AdvoCare V100 (Independence Bowl), some kind of health care. Some are self-explanatory — San Diego County Credit Union (Poinsettia Bowl) and Franklin American Mortgage (Music City Bowl).