FAYETTEVILLE — Two words are sure to bring a smile to any college football player's face this time of year.
Bowl gifts.
The Christmas season extends a few days for those teams fortunate enough to make it to the postseason. College players are allotted up to $950 in gifts for being part of a team that makes a bowl game.
"Bowl games are fun," Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen said. "Looking back at my freshman year (2013), we were just sitting on our couch with nothing. Anytime you can get to a bowl game and get some stuff, gift some gifts, it's just fun."
All Arkansas and Virginia Tech players will receive $450 Belk department store gift cards and a Fossil watch for playing in this year's Belk Bowl. The NCAA caps the gifts a bowl can provide at a $550 value, but allows each school to provide an additional $400 in gifts.
Arkansas provides its players a gift suite in which items are sold based on a point value. Items sold the past couple of years have included electronics, cooking utensils, camping gear, recliners, mattresses and bicycles.
"I got these sick Kobe tennis shoes and those are tough to find because I wear a size 17," Arkansas center Frank Ragnow said. "A couple of years ago I got a remote-controlled helicopter."
Bowl rings also are offered as part of the gift suite, but are never valued at more than $200 - or half the gift suite. All players, including redshirts and walk-ons, are eligible to receive bowl gifts.
Last year the Razorbacks received gift cards and a shopping trip to Bass Pro Shop from the Liberty Bowl, as well as custom-made binoculars, a watch and a Nike gift pack that included shoes, sandals, sunglasses, a backpack and a commemorative game ball.
The Texas Bowl provided the team with an Adidas duffel bag, a belt buckle and a shopping spree to the Houston mall, The Galleria.
"The Texas Bowl, not very good gifts," Allen said. "The Liberty Bowl was a little bit better. If you get to go to a bowl game and get all the stuff, it's pretty awesome to be part of all of that."
Arkansas offensive lineman Dan Skipper called the bowl gifts "a great little addition to the end of the year," and said he has obtained a sound bar and a Yeti cooler through the gift suites. But the greatest gift, Skipper said, is the game itself.
"(The gifts) are cool, but it's not the end all, be all," said Skipper, who will play his final collegiate game against the Hokies. "The opportunity to play another game means more to me."