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The teams that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision earn the right to compete in a series of post-season games called bowl games. As of 2023, there are 42 bowl games (not counting the College Football Playoff National Championship), and all are contractually obligated to offer bids to specific conferences, a situation known as a "tie-in". The "top" six bowl games ("New Year's Six") in the nation select their teams as part of the College Football Playoff (CFP), which was put into place for a minimum of 12 years, beginning with the 2014 season. Prior to 2014, the top five games in the country were chosen under the system known as the Bowl Championship Series. The bowls outside of the CFP have individual contracts with the conferences to offer preferential bids to teams from those conferences. As long as teams are bowl eligible, they may be selected by these bowls to meet these contracts.
The College Football Playoff consists of seven bowls: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, and the College Football Playoff National Championship. For the 2023–2024 season, the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl will serve as national semifinals for the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship in Houston, Texas, meaning that the teams ranked No. 1 through No. 4 in the final College Football playoff rankings will play in those two bowls, with the winners advancing to the CFP National Championship.
Twelve schools are selected for the major bowls. These include the champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference and Southeastern Conference. The highest-ranked champion from the "Group of Five" conferences (American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt) is guaranteed a berth if the group's top team is not in the playoff.
The following tie-ins formerly exist for bowls in the years they are not hosting the national semifinals:
Games | First game | Conference | Conference |
---|---|---|---|
Capital One Orange Bowl | 1935 | ACC | SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame |
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic | 1937 | At-Large | At-Large |
Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential | 1902 | National Semifinal Game | National Semifinal Game |
Allstate Sugar Bowl | 1935 | National Semifinal Game | National Semifinal Game |
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl | 1968 | At-Large | At-Large |
VRBO Fiesta Bowl | 1971 | Group of Five | At-Large |
College Football Playoff National Championship | 2015 | National Final | National Final |
*The top Group of Five champion will be placed into one of the At-Large spots, if they are not selected to be in the CFP.
From 1998 to 2013, the national champion was determined on the field by the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Championship Series consisted of five games, the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl, as well as the BCS Championship Game. A composite system of computer rankings and human polls was used to rank the teams in the Division I–Football Bowl Subdivision. As with the College Football Playoff, the BCS consisted the champions of major conferences, at-large teams, and occasionally Notre Dame or teams from mid-major conferences. Consideration was given to historic associations between the conferences and the bowl games themselves. Tie-ins still apply, unless a team obligated to a certain bowl game is selected for the BCS Championship Game.
The bowls that are not part of the CFP have contractual ties to specific conferences. For the 2019–2020 bowl season, all bowls have at least two tie-ins, meaning that there are no at-large spots open in these bowls, assuming that all conferences produce enough bowl eligible teams. Many bowls also have contingency contracts to offer spots to other specific conferences should their first choice not be eligible. If any slot cannot be filled by a contracted conference at all, then the spot becomes open, and the bowl can offer the slot to any eligible team.
To be eligible, a team must have at least as many wins against FBS opponents as it has total losses in the regular season (excluding the conference championship game), except that a team may count one win against an FCS team that has given out at least 90% of its allowed scholarships over the past two years (as some FCS teams have defeated FBS teams, most notably in the major FCS conferences that typically are in the NCAA championship final). There is one exception to this, as is the case with other sports that use a conference tournament; a conference champion is always eligible to play in a bowl game where the conference has a contract that requires its champion to play in that game. The exclusion of conference championship games was added after UCLA, which was the Pac-12 South representative in 2011, was 6–6 and lost the conference championship game that they participated only because of USC, which won the division that year, was on NCAA probation. The NCAA granted UCLA a waiver, and the exception appeared the following year, where the rule was used by Georgia Tech, the only eligible team among the three tied teams in the Coastal Division that was eligible for postseason because of NCAA probation, was also 6–6 and lost the conference championship game . [1] )
If, as happened in 2015, there are more bowl game openings than eligible teams, then additional teams can become eligible. They are divided up into four groups; all of the teams from a group must be chosen (or decline a bowl bid) before teams from the next group can be chosen. The groups are:
Note that, in groups 1–3, the teams can be chosen in any order, and the bowl games choose the teams; however, in group 4, they must be chosen in APR order, and each team chooses the bowl game in which it will play. [2]
A rule change for 2010 allows bowls to tender a bid to any team with a 6–6 record before teams with more than six wins.[ citation needed ] Previously, a bowl with an at-large bid to fill was required to select the remaining team with the best record over a 6–6 team that would have been more financially attractive in terms of bringing more fans to the respective bowl.
The contracts specify that the respective bowl committees receive a certain choice of teams. The selection order lists shown below (No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, etc.) indicate only the order in which the respective bowl committees make their selections. The choices are typically not predicated on end-of-season rankings or actually final regular season records/standings. For example, a bowl with the "# 3 pick" from a particular conference does not mean necessarily it has to select the "third place team" from that conference. When it becomes that committee's turn to pick, it may pick any of the remaining teams from that conference (with respect to the aforementioned eligibility rules detailed above).
A committee may select one team over another due to geographical proximity, travel ability for the fanbase, or other factors. Bowls may choose to "skip" teams in order to avoid regular season rematches, or perhaps bowl rematches from the previous season. In various cases, bowls have embraced a particular team(s) participating in same bowl in two consecutive seasons, but may shy away from inviting them for a third consecutive season. However, in most cases, the order loosely follows the general order of the regular season records/rankings.
Some conferences have special selection parameters written into their contracts with specific bowls—for example, the Citrus Bowl is contractually obligated to select the winningest Big Ten and SEC teams that do not make a CFP game (semifinal or New Year's Six Bowl), or a team within one win of the winningest in its conference. The MAC's bowl contracts require that both division champions, if eligible, receive bids to one of its five contracted bowls.
Teams must be bowl-eligible to be selected for a bowl game. Should a conference not have enough eligible teams to meet their obligations, the bowls at the end of the selection process are free to choose a replacement team from among any remaining bowl-eligible teams that are not already committed to a bowl game. If a conference has multiple teams chosen for the CFP/New Year's Six games, the remaining bowls still select in the same order. For example, if two Pac-12 teams are in the CFP, the Alamo Bowl would then have the third (and not second) selection from the Pac-12, and all remaining bowls would also shift accordingly. This increases the likelihood that the conference will not be able to provide enough teams to meet its tie-in obligations.
2020-2025: [3]
Guaranteed Bids:
Four Bids from the following:
2023: [5]
NOTE: Selections made with schools, bowls, and conference office, no order of selection outside of NY6 bowls, then tier #1 bowls, then tier #2 bowls
Tier No. 1
Tier #2
2023: [6]
2023: [8]
2023 [9] :
Guaranteed Bowl Bid
C-USA will get 4 or 5 additional bowl bids from these 12 bowls (decision made in conjunction with ESPN, who owns these bowls):
2023: [10]
Guaranteed Bowl Bid:
2 Bids from the following:
2023: [11]
The Mountain West Conference will also have a sixth bowl tie-in with an ESPN Events operated bowl game.
As secondary if the listed conferences cannot provide a bowl-eligible team
2023: [12]
Guaranteed Bids:
The Pac-12 Conference will also have a seventh bowl tie-in with an ESPN Events operated bowl game.
2023 [13]
Tier No. 1: Conference, in consultation with bowls and schools, assign teams to the following six bowls:
Tier #2
2023 [14]
Guaranteed Bids:
3 Bids from the following:
Of the independent Football Bowl Subdivision teams, there are contractual agreements to play in certain bowl games should they become bowl eligible. All of these teams are eligible to be selected for a New Year's Six bowl game before accepting any other contractual bids.
For 2023, some of the contractual obligations are the following:
For the only bowl game in the Football Championship Subdivision, the Celebration Bowl, the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference both have tie-ins. Each conference must send their champion to the game.
The Lone Star Conference has tie-ins to two bowls: a mandatory tie-in with the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl and optional slots in the Live United Bowl and Corsicana Bowl.
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association has tie-ins to three bowls:
The Great American Conference has two tie-ins:
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has a tie-in with the Mineral Water Bowl and sends the highest-ranking team not in the tournament.
The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been played at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Since 2022, it has been sponsored by Vrbo and officially known as the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. Previous sponsors include PlayStation, BattleFrog, Vizio, Tostitos, IBM (1993–1995) and Sunkist (1986–1990).
The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, traditionally played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. Nicknamed "The Granddaddy of Them All" by broadcaster Keith Jackson, it was the first postseason football game ever established. The Rose Bowl Game was first played in 1902 as the Tournament East–West football game, and has been played annually since 1916. Since 1945, it has been the highest attended college football bowl game. The game is a part of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association's "America's New Year Celebration", which also includes the historic Rose Parade. Winners of the game receive the Leishman Trophy, named for former Tournament of Roses presidents, William L. Leishman and Lathrop K. Leishman who played an important part in the history of this game.
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including an opportunity for the top two teams to compete in the BCS National Championship Game. The system was in place for the 1998 through 2013 seasons and in 2014 was replaced by the College Football Playoff.
The College Football Bowl Coalition was formed through an agreement among Division I-A college football bowl games and conferences for the purpose of forcing a national championship game between the top two teams and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences. It was established for the 1992 season after there were co-national champions for both 1990 and 1991. The agreement was in place for the 1992, 1993, and 1994 college football seasons. It was the predecessor of the Bowl Alliance (1995–1997), and later the Bowl Championship Series (1998–2013) and the College Football Playoff.
The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game matchups for the champions of its member conferences. The agreement was in place for the 1995, 1996, and 1997 seasons and had replaced the Bowl Coalition. Each participating team in the Bowl Alliance Championship received $8.5 million from the television sponsors.
The Power Four conferences, known 2014-2023 as the Power Five conferences, are the most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate football in the nation, and are considered the most elite conferences within that tier. The Power Four conferences have provided most of the participants in the College Football Playoff since its inception, and generally have larger revenue, budgets, and television viewership than other college athletic programs.
The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played annually in the Miami metropolitan area since January 1, 1935. Along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, it is one of the oldest bowl games in the country behind only the Rose Bowl, which was first played in 1902 and has been played annually since 1916.
The 2012–13 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 35 team-competitive games and four all-star games. The games began on Saturday, December 15, 2012, and, aside from the all-star games, concluded with the 2013 BCS National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida that was played on January 7, 2013.
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level of college football competition in the United States. It culminates in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The inaugural tournament was held at the end of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season under a four-team format. The CFP Board of Managers voted in 2023 to expand the playoff to twelve teams beginning in 2024, an arrangement that will last at least through the end of the 2025 season. After 2025, the current contract between all major players expires and a new contract will be drawn up, with indications that additional expansion may take place as soon as 2026.
The 2013–14 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season and included 35 team-competitive games and three all-star games. The games began on Saturday, December 21, 2013, and, aside from the all-star games, ended with the 2014 BCS National Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena that was played on January 6, 2014.
The 2014–15 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They completed the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 39 team-competitive games and four all-star games. The games began on December 20, 2014 and, aside from the all-star games, ended with the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship which was played on January 12, 2015.
The 2015–16 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They completed the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 19, 2015, and, aside from the all-star games, ended with the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship which was played on January 11, 2016.
The 2016–17 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games which completed the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 17, 2016, and aside from the all-star games ended with the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship which was played on January 9, 2017.
The 2017–18 NCAA football bowl games was a series of college football bowl games which completed the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 16, 2017, and aside from the all-star games ended with the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship, which was played on January 8, 2018.
The New Year's Six, sometimes abbreviated as NY6, are the following NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) bowl games: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. These games are played annually on or around New Year's Day and represent six of the ten oldest bowl games played at the FBS level.
The 2018–19 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games completing the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 15, 2018, and, aside from the all-star games that follow, ended with the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship, which was played on January 7, 2019.
The 2019–20 NCAA football games were a series of college football bowl games played to complete the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 20, 2019, and, aside from the all-star games that followed, ended with the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship played on January 13, 2020.
The 2021–22 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football games scheduled to complete the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The main games concluded with the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship played on January 10, 2022, while the all-star portion of the schedule concluded February 19, 2022.
The 2022–23 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football games played to complete the 2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Team-competitive games began in mid-December and concluded with the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship on January 9, 2023, which was won by the Georgia Bulldogs. The all-star portion of the schedule began on January 14 and concluded on February 25, 2023.
The 2023–24 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games in the United States, primarily played to complete the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Team-competitive bowl games in FBS began on December 16 and concluded with the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship on January 8, 2024, which was won by the Michigan Wolverines. The all-star portion began on January 13 and concluded on February 24.
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