Well, there went your respectability.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports this morning that the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is dropping the "Peach" name starting next year, meaning it will simply be called the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Meaning that a once-respectable, tradition-rich game has now leaped into the Meineke Car Care Bowl/Carquest Bowl/MPC Computers Bowl pantheon of stupidly named bowls that, at least outwardly, exist as nothing more than an excuse for more corporate whoring.

Reading the quotes from both the Chick-fil-A people and the bowl people as to why they're electing to wipe their asses with 38 years of tradition and flush it down the commode, I still don't get it:

"This is a great deal for us," said Steve Robinson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A. "Our goal when we came on board nine years ago was to build our brand both regionally and nationally and to help the bowl grow into one of the premier events in the country. We feel this deal is a big step in that direction."

How is it a "big step" in that direction, exactly? Was the word "Peach" hogging too much of the limelight? Were the Chick-fil-A people silently watching in despair as droves of football fans chose to eat nothing but peaches for lunch rather than Chick-fil-A's delicious chicken sandwiches? OK, so maybe the general public's insistence on calling it just the Peach Bowl, as opposed to Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, is a marketing roadblock for Chick-fil-A. But if people feel stupid using the full official name in casual conversation, shouldn't that tell Chick-fil-A something? In the end this name change is going to have only two outcomes -- most people will continue to refer to it as "the Peach Bowl," and those who do not will call it "the Chick-fil-A Bowl" but roll their eyes and make the jerk-off gesture with their hands as they do so.

"To get our bowl into this position has been our goal since we started these talks with Chick-fil-A," said Gary Stokan, the bowl's president. "Yes, we say goodbye to 38 years of tradition with the Peach Bowl. But we believe ? and our board of directors agreed ? that there are going to be opportunities out there for us in the future, and this puts us in good position to take advantage of those opportunities."

As far as I can ascertain, Stokan believes that having a stupid name will put the bowl in prime position to move up in the SEC pecking order. "Chick-fil-A Bowl" really isn't any more embarrassing than "Outback Bowl," I guess. But still. If I was NCAA President Myles Brand, I would pass a bylaw declaring that any Division I-A bowl game with a title sponsor would also have to have the name of some American staple product or cash crop in the name, if only to keep venerable institutions like the Orange Bowl from becoming the FedEx Bowl or something like that. In other words, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, yes; Chick-fil-A Bowl, no. Meineke Magnolia Bowl, yes; Meineke Car Care Bowl, no. I mean, someone's gotta put a finger in the dike and prevent college football from being completely swallowed up by mega-corporations, to the point where players' uniforms are covered up with corporate logos like frigging NASCAR cars and announcers holler things like, "Wow, that was an incredible Tide with Bleach quarterback sack by Quentin Moses, and big ups to Paul Oliver for his heads-up Budweiser Select fumble recovery!"

I mean, I have some great Peach Bowl memories from my time as a Georgia student -- beanie-baby cows raining from the Georgia Dome's third deck as the Dawgs came back from a 21-0 deficit against Virginia in '98, for starters -- and now that's all tainted. Why, Chick-fil-A? Is it not enough that you toy with us by refusing to open on Sundays? Why?