What began as a matchup between the Big East and Mountain West conferences, the Foster Farms Bowl currently features the Pac-12 and Big Ten.
“We’re kind of a Rose Bowl North, if you will,” said Gary Cavalli, the game’s co-founder and executive director, during Saturday’s press conference at the Hotel Nikko San Francisco.
Tonight’s matchup at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara pits Stanford (7-5) against Maryland (7-5), with kickoff at 7.
Founded in 2002, it was originally known as the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl before sponsor Diamond Foods renamed it the Emerald Bowl from 2004 to 2009.
A change in sponsorsphip turned it into the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl for three seasons, then last year it was simply the Fight Hunger Bowl.
“I understand that the Stanford band is going to do a parody of our game at halftime,” Cavalli said. “Well, you know, it’s a reality of college football and it’s a reality of the bowl business that you have to have a sponsor because the conferences are demanding larger and larger payouts. So if you don’t have a sponsor, forget about it.”
A multi-year deal was struck to bring in Foster Farms as the game shifts from San Francisco’s AT&T Park, its home for 12 years, to the 49ers’ brand-new $1.2 billion facility.
“So we’ve basically gone from the nut bowl, to the mac ‘n cheese bowl to the the chicken bowl,” Cavalli said. “We definitely have a food orientation here in our bowl game. Food is very important, very important to the teams, but we do fight hunger.”
For every ticket sold, a meal is donated for a hungry family in the Bay Area.
Players from both teams volunteered Sunday at Glide Memorial Church as well as St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen in San Francisco. The bowl is also affiliated with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and expanded its reach to Alameda County Community Food Bank along with Second Harvest Food Bank in Santa Clara and San Mateo.
Email Vytas Mazeika at vmazeika@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at Twitter.com/dailynewsvytas.
