The month of December always gets people thinking about the excitement, fun, and surprises of the upcoming season, with thoughts of star players, touchdown celebrations, and Grinch-like defenses dancing in their heads.
We’re talking, of course, about college football bowl season.
The season kicks off this afternoon, Dec. 21, with the Appalachian State Mountaineers taking on the North Texas Mean Green in the Myrtle Beach Bowl from Brooks Stadium in Conway, SC.
It will be all hands on deck this college bowl season as VITAC will provide captions for 30 football games over the next few weeks, including the college football playoff semifinals on Jan. 1 and the entire New Year’s Six, culminating with the national championship game on Jan. 11 from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
Captioning a live sporting event is an entirely different ballgame and, just as teams need great chemistry and teamwork to be successful, so, too, does our realtime department. Our captioners, production coordinators, and supervisors prep for the big games, researching rosters, player names, and stats in advance of each contest.
Captioning an event like a college bowl game presents a unique set of challenges. Unlike captioning for a pre-recorded show or a live event that moves at a little slower pace, the action on the field (or diamond or court or ice) is fast, the announcers’ play-by-play and banter is quick, and athlete names stats, and jargon is peppered throughout the broadcast.
But, like always, you can rest assured that our team will bring its “A” game to keep up with the fast-paced dialogue and keep those who rely on captions in the know.
Below is a list of scheduled bowl games (as of Dec. 21) our team is captioning and the match-ups where available.
- Dec. 21 – Myrtle Beach Bowl (Appalachian State vs. North Texas)
- Dec. 22 – Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Nevada vs. Tulane)
- Dec. 22 – Boca Raton Bowl (UCF vs. BYU)
- Dec. 23 – R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (Louisiana Tech vs. Georgia Southern)
- Dec. 23 – Montgomery Bowl (Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic)
- Dec. 24 – New Mexico Bowl (Hawaii vs. Houston)
- Dec. 25 – Camellia Bowl (Marshall vs. Buffalo)
- Dec. 26 – Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (South Carolina vs. UAB)
- Dec. 26 – Cure Bowl (Liberty vs. Coastal Carolina)
- Dec. 26 – SERVPRO First Responder Bowl (Louisiana vs. UTSA)
- Dec. 26 – LendingTree Bowl (Western Kentucky vs. Georgia State)
- Dec. 28 – Military Bowl Presented by Perspecta
- Dec. 29 – Cheez-It Bowl (Oklahoma State vs. Miami)
- Dec. 29 – Valero Alamo Bowl (Texas vs. Colorado)
- Dec. 30 – Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Wake Forest vs. Wisconsin)
- Dec. 30 – TransPerfect Music City Bowl (Iowa vs. Missouri)
- Dec. 30 – Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (Oklahoma vs. Florida)
- Dec. 31 – Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (Tulsa vs. Mississippi State)
- Dec. 31 – AutoZone Liberty Bowl (West Virginia vs. Tennessee)
- Dec. 31 – Arizona Bowl (Ball State vs. San Jose State)
- Dec. 31 – Mercari Texas Bowl (Arkansas vs. TCU)
- Jan. 1 – Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Cincinnati vs. Georgia)
- Jan. 1 – Vrbo Citrus Bowl (Auburn vs. Northwestern)
- Jan. 1 – College Football Playoff Semifinal at The Rose Bowl Game (Alabama vs. Notre Dame)
- Jan. 1 – College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl (Clemson vs. Ohio State)
- Jan. 2 – TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (NC State vs. Kentucky)
- Jan. 2 – Outback Bowl (Ole Miss vs. Indiana)
- Jan. 2 – PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (Oregon vs. Iowa State)
- Jan. 2 – Capital One Orange Bowl (Texas A&M vs. North Carolina)
- Jan. 11 – College Football Playoff National Championship (winner of the Rose Bowl vs. winner of the Sugar Bowl)