College football’s new Redbox Bowl gives Blockbuster Bowl its spiritual successor

The postseason football game formerly known as the Foster Farms Bowl will go by a new name in 2018: the Redbox Bowl.

The logo:

This will not be the original in-person movie rental bowl, of course.

RIP to the Blockbuster Bowl, which shed its sponsorship of what is now the Camping World Bowl in the 1990s. Additionally, RIP to Blockbuster.

Redbox is still kicking in the movie rental game, though.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Redboxes are what the pilgrims used to rent movies. After arriving at the Plymouth Colony in the 1600s, the settlers could walk up to any Redbox and put in $1, and then they’d get to take out a movie on DVD and play it on their DVD players. The next day, they’d bring the DVD back to the Redbox, and they’d have gotten a night of great entertainment out of the deal.

Either that, or they became a thing in the 2000s and perked up in national popularity later that decade, becoming pretty popular before Netflix and digital streaming overtook them, but having still managed to hang around over the last few years.

Redbox remains popular when people are looking to rent movies in person. (That’s a bigger share of the market than I think I’ve personally realized.) You can even rent movies online through Rexbox now. And, if you forgot about this company, it now has a bowl game to remind you of its existence.

As an added bonus, the bowl’s on New Year’s Eve, during what any reasonable person will admit is the best time of year to rent movies.

The Rexbox Bowl is played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

A week after the Redbox Bowl, that stadium will host the Playoff National Championship on Jan. 7, 2019.

This game had been under the working title “San Francisco Bowl”. Diamond Foods and Kraft previously sponsored it after its founding in the 2002 season.