Business Notes FOOTBALL

When the University of Texas Longhorns meet the University of Miami Hurricanes in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day, the football teams will have to share billing with a third powerhouse: Mobil Corp. The oil company's name will be emblazoned on stadium signs and embedded in the AstroTurf at the 50-yd. line. In fact, the extravaganza has been officially rechristened the Mobil Cotton Bowl. Mobil earned title rights to the game for seven years by paying millions of dollars to the organizers, the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association.

As postseason bowls have proliferated to 19, such major corporate tie-ins have begun to be the norm. Among them: the Federal Express Orange Bowl, Mazda Gator Bowl, Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl and Domino's Pizza Copper Bowl. In El Paso sports reporters and other locals persisted in calling the John Hancock Sun Bowl by its old name, the Sun Bowl. So last year the insurance company got the name changed. Now it is officially the John Hancock Bowl.