The People's National Championship: The Pop-Tarts Bowl

In a world where thousands of bowl games take place every day and corporate blandness dominates many of them, no sporting event has captured the hearts and minds of America quite like Bowl Season’s crown jewel event: The Pop Tarts Bowl. Played in sunny Orlando, Florida as one of three games played at Camping World Stadium, The Pop Tarts Bowl has become the most prestigious non-Playoff Bowl Game in the college football landscape, and is well on its way to becoming more desirable than the actual College Football Playoff National Championship. This year, the #22 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will be playing the #12 Brigham Young Cougars for the right to win one of the greatest prizes in all of sports: the right to eat the Edible Mascot.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl

The Pop-Tarts Bowl hasn’t always been America’s favorite bowl game, and it only recently became named for America’s favorite toaster pastry. The first iteration of the game took place back in 1990 as the Blockbuster Bowl at what is now Hard Rock Stadium. That first game still holds the attendance record as the #6 Florida State Seminoles defeated the #7 Penn State Nittany Lions 24-17 in front of 74,021 fans. Since then, the game has been known as the Carquest Bowl, the MicronPC.com Bowl, the Tangerine Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl, the Russell Athletic Bowl, the Camping World, and most recently the Cheez-It Bowl. The Pop-Tarts Bowl was born in 2023, and with it one of the greatest traditions in all of sports: the Edible Mascot.

The Pop-Tarts mascots that debuted at the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl have become something that MBA students and marketing professionals everywhere have been falling over themselves to try to recreate. Ever since Strawberry was lowered into the giant toaster on the field in front of the anticipatorily salivating mouths of the Kansas State football team holding a sign that read “Dreams Really Do Come True”, nothing in college football has ever been the same. A memorial for the sacrificed pastry was erected outside of Camping World Stadium, only to see Strawberry resurrected the next year. In 2024, Wild Berry, Hot Fudge Sundae and Cinnamon Roll joined the cast to include a fan-vote for which mascot would be sacrificed. This year, the pageantry of the newly and appropriately named “People’s National Championship” will include two teams of three edible mascots: Team Sprinkles (Cherry, Cookies & Creme and the muscular Protein Slammin’ Strawberry) vs Team Swirls (Wild Berry, Hot Fudge Sundae and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough). The crucial addition to the action that almost becomes an afterthought next to the mascots is the trophy itself: a fully functioning toaster.

Outside of the mascot antics, the Pop-Tarts Bowl and its predecessors have seen a number of great players lend their talents. Philip Rivers (x2), Kliff Kingsbury, Graham Gano, Russell Wilson, Teddy Bridgewater, Mason Rudolph, Chase Claypool and Rocco Becht are all former MVPs of the game. The Miami Hurricanes hold the record for most appearances in the game with 7, but it is Florida State that holds the record for wins at a perfect 4-0 record. The bowl has traditional conference tie-ins with the Big 12 and ACC, but the game has also seen participants from the American, Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12, and independents as well. This year will be the first time that two ranked teams have played in the game since 2018.

This game features a matchup between two modern football misfits with national championship history: BYU and Georgia Tech. Despite both teams having over a century of football under their belts, this matchup has only ever occurred four times before, all of which took place between 2002 and 2013. After the Yellow Jackets won the first meeting in Atlanta, the Cougars have won every game since, having played a duo of home-and-home series’.

Meet the Cougars

The home team on the scoreboard will be the BYU “Stormin’ Mormons” who are coming off of an impressive 11-2 season. Their season featured only two losses on the year, both coming in blowout fashion to Texas Tech, once in Lubbock and the second in the Big 12 Championship Game. BYU spent the majority of the season ranked, and believed they were worthy of a CFP bid after defeating their archrivals Utah in the most recent iteration of their Holy War rivalry, but were left on the outside looking in when all was said and done. The team is led by Kalani Sitake in his tenth year coaching the squad, who is 5-2 in his bowl history with BYU and has ended the season ranked three times. Sitake recently shut down rumors that he was leaving for a bigger school by signing a new extension with BYU. The Cougars seem to be relatively healthy going into the Pop-Tarts Bowl, but they will be without Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year RB LJ Martin following a surgery, as well as backup RB Sione Moa.

The offense is led by Freshman phenom and Big 12 Freshman of the Year Bear Bachmeier, who has 2,708 passing yards on the season and 14 touchdowns. He is also second on the rushing charts with 527 yards and 11 TDs behind the aforementioned LJ Martin. With the two primary RBs injured, the next most experienced rusher on the list is senior Enoch Nawahine, who only has 15 carries on the season. Bachmeier spreads the ball around a fair amount to his receivers, with Junior Parker Kingston and Senior Chase Roberts leading the way with 848 and 745 yards respectively, and 5 touchdowns each. The defense is led by Senior linebacker Jack Kelly, whose 10 sacks on the season is among the best in the Nation.

Meet the Yellow Jackets

Their opponent will be the Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech, who are experiencing something of a resurgence this year with their best finish in a decade, and their first consecutive winning seasons in even longer. The Yellow Jackets experienced some significant buzz to start the season as they rattled off eight straight wins to start the season, including victories against rivals Clemson and Virginia Tech. It all came crashing down in November when GT lost their first game of the season to North Carolina State, and then saw the wheels fall off against PIttsburgh, and archrival Georgia for the 8th straight season in Clean Old Fashioned Hate. Still, the Yellow Jackets finished 9-3 and seem to be building something in Atlanta. That said, Georgia Tech has lost their Offensive Coordinator Buster Faulkner to take the same job with Florida, and also will likely be without a number of players due to injury. Only three players have entered the transfer portal for the team, with occasional starting Center Tana Alo-Tupuola as the only real significant loss.

The Yellow Jackets are led by Senior QB Haynes King, who is both the team's leading passer and rusher with a combined 27 touchdowns. Running Backs Jamal Haynes and Malachi Hosley make up a three-pronged rushing attack along with King, with Hosley averaging a whopping 7.3 yards per carry. King spreads the ball around relatively evenly to his receiving corps, with Senior Eric Rivers receiving the largest share with 42 receptions for 556 yards, while Sophomore Isiah Canion leads the team with 4 receiving touchdowns. The Georgia Tech defense has been their major weak point this season, allowing nearly 400 yards of offense per game with the majority of that coming through the air. Their leading tackler on the season is Junior LB Kyle Efford.

Whether you’re a Stormin’ Mormon or a Ramblin’ Wreck, the Pop-Tarts Bowl is one that is circled on every college football fan’s calendar. Orlando will be rocking with the fervor of fans from across the nation, ready to cheer on the sacrifice of an edible Pop-Tart Mascot to the winning team, leaving everyone asking the same question: Does it get any better than this?

Side Note: Georgia Tech has one of the best fight songs in College Football and more people should know about it.