ESPN aired the Camellia Bowl on Saturday, and the network had the perfect chance to promote the game thanks to SportsCenter immediately preceding the bowl.
And the promotion worked because people were immediately talking about it on X/Twitter — but for the wrong reason.
As SC co-anchors Hannah Storm and Jay Harris wrapped the show at noon, a large graphic displayed behind them showed the Camellia Bowl logo with the logos of the Northern Illinois Huskies and the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
It didn’t take a zoologist to quickly determine the graphic displayed as Arkansas State was not a Red Wolf, but a Razorback, the mascot for that other school in the state, the University of Arkansas.
As the Washington Post‘s Steven Godfrey noted on X, “Well, @SportsCenter just used the Hogs’ logo instead of @AStateFB for the Camellia Bowl graphic. No one should notice.”
oof. https://t.co/iT3tl1Nt2Y pic.twitter.com/HwMlcF0Osy
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 23, 2023
The Razorbacks have traditionally been the more successful team in Arkansas and the Razorbacks have one of CFB’s most iconic and imposing logos. Which makes this logo mistake even more surprising. Here’s a look at the two logos.
Here are the two logos (Arkansas & Arkansas State) side-by-side via @KARK4News https://t.co/ZDYItLujCk pic.twitter.com/01xanCwsdL
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 23, 2023
If you squint really hard, they do look kind of similar, both red, toothy and angry-looking. But manu thought ESPN should have done better.
https://twitter.com/missmiranda/status/1738606429626363925?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1738606429626363925%7Ctwgr%5E2eeac6b99fcef848a4aa3856264b09c16be2be7f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fmissmiranda%2Fstatus%2F1738606429626363925
C’mon @espn… do better. If your graphics team doesn’t know the difference between Arkansas and Arkansas State… you need a different one. pic.twitter.com/janPbDeKA7
— Terry Benham (@TerryBenham3) December 23, 2023
Happens all of the time with South Dakota St/South Dakota/San Diego St.
— Jason C. Dorman (@JasonCDorman) December 23, 2023
ESPN definitely just showed the Arkansas logo instead of A State as sportscenter went off the air. Had me confused because I knew Arkansas didn’t make a bowl game
— Kane the First (@KingKane75) December 23, 2023
[Steven Godfrey; Photo Credit: ESPN]
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.