Come for the football, stay for the mayonnaise bath, the mayonnaise eating contest, the mayonnaise race, the mayonnaise tasting, the mayonnaise bobbing…

The Duke’s Mayo Bowl and all of its emulsion-based shenanigans have been popular on social media in recent years, turning the event from one of many college football bowl games to one of sports’ most viral sensations.

On Friday, two teams will battle it out under the lights of a 75,000-seat stadium in Charlotte, N.C., for victory and the chance — nay, the right — to watch the victorious head coach get bathed in five gallons of celebratory mayonnaise.

Here you will find everything you need to know about the game.

Who is playing?

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers will play the Virginia Tech Hokies on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. The Gophers won seven of 12 games this season, while the Hokies had six wins and six losses.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

What is the story of the game?

Duke’s Mayo, a Hellman’s competitor popular with many Southerners, purchased the rights from the Charlotte Sports Foundation in 2020 for an undisclosed amount. Previously, the game had various sponsors, including Belk, a Charlotte-based department store chain, and Meineke Car Care Center, a Charlotte-based repair shop operator.

Duke’s extended the contract indefinitely in 2023, said Miller Yoho, the foundation’s director of communications and marketing.

Six major bowl games – the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Peach Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl – are part of a playoff leading to a national championship game. Then there are 36 other bowl games vying to stay relevant as players enter the transfer portal or exit entirely if they have NFL aspirations. Some bowls are based on decades of tradition, others on exotic locations.

And some, like Duke’s Mayo Bowl, have found a way to turn heads and attract millions of viewers.

The fierce battle for attention during bowl season has resulted in moments made for TikTok that fill opening ceremonies, postgame seasons and postgame celebrations.

There was the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, which brought fans onto the field and into a small hot tub with a cracker logo. At the Pop-Tarts Bowl, a humanoid Pop-Tarts mascot danced on the field before being torn to pieces and eaten by the winning team in a moment that inspired fear and fascination.

The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is more than just gimmicks. The team payouts, attendance, and television ratings are respectable for a middling game, and it holds a coveted prime-time spot toward the end of bowl season. Last year’s edition between North Carolina and West Virginia attracted 3.84 million viewers, the most since 2016. But how successful it is at attracting attention has more to do with a willingness to go full-on mayonnaise and create some of the most provocative and viral moments in college football.

Here’s what to expect.

There will be more mayo eating contests and mayo tastings, that’s for sure. Last year, fans received jars of Duke’s mayo with team logos on them. The Duke’s Mayo mascot will take part in a race. The Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team known for its on-field antics, will make an appearance, Mr. Yoho said. There will be more mayo chaos.

There will also be mayonnaise. It’s like looking for apples, except there are little packets of mayonnaise floating in a bucket of mayonnaise.

And then there’s the infamous mayo dump. Then the winning team’s coach sits in a chair, most likely questioning some life decisions, while five gallons of mayonnaise is dumped on his head.

Gross? Perhaps. But people are watching. Mr. Yoho told The New York Times last year that interest in the game had never been higher.

“Honestly, that’s the most that’s been talked about in the 10 years I’ve been doing this,” he said. Duke’s Mayo had a record day of online sales during last year’s game, a spokesperson for the brand added.

Charlotte Sports Foundation executives remained tight-lipped about some of the surprises they said were in store, including new items for the Mayo dump. But whatever happens, it’s likely that clips will be all over your social media feeds shortly after the clock hits double zeros.