NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bahamas Bowl isn’t just a college football bowl game.
Think of it as an ambassadorship or an international goodwill tour. Not just on the part of the United States, but the game of football.
“You’re taking your brand abroad and have an opportunity to spread football into another country,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said, “which I think is cool.”
American football came to the Bahamas, a chain of 700 islands off the coast of South Florida, in the 1950s. But the sport didn’t take hold culturally until 1972 when the Miami Dolphins, just 90 miles away, completed the first — and still only — undefeated NFL season.