Fifty years ago, there were 11 bowl games in major college football.
You had your relatively minor affairs -- the Liberty Bowl (No. 10 Maryland vs. Tennessee), the Tangerine Bowl (No. 15 Miami (Ohio) vs. Georgia), the Bluebonnet Bowl (No. 13 NC State vs. Houston), the Sun Bowl (Mississippi State vs. North Carolina), the Peach Bowl (Vanderbilt vs. Texas Tech) and the Fiesta Bowl (No. 17 BYU vs. Oklahoma State).
Then you had the major stuff. On Dec. 30, No. 6 Auburn played (and beat) No. 11 Texas in the Gator Bowl. On Dec. 31, No. 8 Nebraska outlasted No. 18 Florida in the Sugar Bowl. And in a New Year's Day tripleheader, No. 7 Penn State walloped No. 12 Baylor in the Cotton Bowl, No. 5 USC upset No. 3 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl and No. 9 Notre Dame upset No. 2 Alabama in a bowl for the second straight year, this time in the Orange Bowl.
And that was it. No. 1 Oklahoma, banned from the postseason -- which almost feels like even more of an ancient relic than having only 11 bowls -- won the national title with ease, USC finished No. 2 in the AP poll and No. 4 Michigan, out of the postseason because of the Big Ten's "only one team bowls" policy, moved up to No. 3 with Ohio State's loss.
Bowl season has, shall we say, evolved in the half-century since. (To those scoffing and saying the olden days were definitely better: You're wrong.) Eighty-two of the FBS' 134 teams, plus a pair of smoking hot FCS HBCU teams, will play in at least one postseason game in the coming weeks. Four playoff teams will each play in a pair of major bowls, and then two of them will meet in Atlanta for a national title game that isn't a bowl.
Getting into the specifics of bowl season can be a pretty disorienting experience, in case you couldn't tell, and that's before we even get to how many players will opt out or enter the transfer portal or how many teams will be led by interim head coaches. But then again, aside from the playoff games, you really aren't supposed to take in bowl season at a micro level. It's best to just turn on the TV and soak in whatever bowl game is on. (And there's almost always a bowl game on.)
To prepare for this macro experience, I'm going to lump the 40 or so bowl games -- not including first-round CFP games, which technically aren't bowls, or the Cotton and Orange Bowl semifinals, which don't have any teams yet -- into 13 categories. Some bowls show up in multiple places; just go with it.
Here's something you need to know about each game on the loaded bowl schedule.
Jump to a section:
Chasing ring, record | Breaking in QB?
Justifying byes | Five favorites
CFP near-misses | Strong finishers
Embrace silliness | 2025 sneak peek
Prolific QBs | Unique challenges
Redemption time | 7-6 or 6-7
First bowl, new coach
Chasing the ring and the record
CFP Quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl: No. 1 Oregon vs. Ohio State/Tennessee (Jan. 1)
It makes sense to start with the biggest games, even if we know only one of the teams participating in each at this point.
This year's Rose Bowl has a pretty high bar to clear: In the CFP era alone, we've seen two of the greatest CFP games to date (Georgia over Oklahoma in 2018, Michigan over Alabama last year), plus some dynamite other games (USC over Penn State in 2017, Ohio State over Utah in 2022). There's a chance that, in the first year after the Pac-12 was devoured by the Big Ten (among others), the Rose Bowl ends up pitting two Big Ten teams against each other in a rematch of one of 2024's better regular-season games. There's also a chance that Tennessee makes its first Rose Bowl appearance since 1945. Regardless, we know Oregon will be playing here, and we know the Ducks are undergoing a pair of incredible chases at once.
The big one, of course, is the hunt for the program's first national title. But beyond that, quarterback Dillon Gabriel is just 794 passing yards behind Case Keenum for the all-time career lead. He's got 18,423 following Saturday's 283-yard performance against Penn State, and he'll need to average either 397 yards over two games (unlikely) or 285 over three to get there. Obviously, the title matters the most, but in the history of college football, I'm not sure anyone has had a better day than the hypothetical "break the passing record while winning the national title" experience that might await Gabriel in a few weeks if the unbeaten Ducks keep winning.
A hell of a time to potentially start a new QB
CFP Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl: No. 2 Georgia vs. Notre Dame/Indiana (Jan. 1)
Of all the plays impacting the national title race -- and when you've got a 12-team playoff, you've got tons of plays impacting the race -- one of the biggest might end up having also been one of the most pointless.
Carson Beck is sacked and fumbles, leading to a chaotic play and the quarterback being helped off the field.
Georgia's Carson Beck injured an elbow getting hit while attempting a Hail Mary on the final play of the first half in the SEC championship game, and while the school is being as vague as possible about the significance of the injury and how much time he might miss, it's not hard to assume he's out for at least the quarterfinals, if not the rest of the season. And if so, that changes the Dawgs' outlook pretty significantly.
Sophomore Gunner Stockton did just enough to lead Georgia past Texas in Atlanta, but his overall stat line -- 12-for-16 for just 71 yards and an interception -- didn't inspire incredible confidence. Can coordinator Mike Bobo craft a game plan that allows Stockton to thrive on a huge stage despite minimal experience? Can the Georgia defense pick up the slack against Notre Dame or Indiana (and then potentially two more opponents) if not?
Justifying the bye
CFP Quarterfinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl: No. 9 Boise State vs. Penn State/SMU (Dec. 31)
CFP Quarterfinal at the Peach Bowl: No. 12 Arizona State vs. Texas/Clemson (Jan. 1)
Aside from the selection of SMU over Alabama, maybe the most discussed aspect of this first 12-team CFP bracket is who got two of the four first-round byes. Had the CFP been seeded based strictly on the committee's rankings, Big 12 champion Arizona State and Mountain West champion Boise State would have ended up as the No. 11 and No. 9 seeds, respectively, playing first-round road games against Ohio State and Indiana. Instead, the playoff was set up to give the top four seeds to the highest-ranked conference champions.
Personally, I love this. Rewarding conference titles -- and, on the inverse, barely punishing teams that lose conference title games in terms of the rankings -- assures that conference title games themselves carry the most possible meaning in this new, large playoff environment. It doesn't make Boise State or Arizona State national title favorites or anything, but it does signify that conference titles, and the wacky races that lead to them, still mean plenty.
It appears plenty of people disagree with that, however, and it wouldn't surprise me if, in the coming months as higher-ups decide what the CFP will look like in 2026 and beyond, this feature is removed. My recommendation, then, would be for either Boise State or Arizona State to pull a fun quarterfinal upset -- either because it might be a rare opportunity moving forward or because success in such a game might make it slightly more likely that the championship byes remain in place. (This would have the added benefit of allowing us to see Ashton Jeanty and/or Cam Skattebo playing in more games. Everybody wins! Except Penn State, SMU, Texas and/or Clemson, anyway.)
My five favorite non-playoff bowls
We're guaranteed to see some wonderfully silly bowls in the coming weeks, even if we don't know for sure which ones they'll be -- I wouldn't have guessed that Western Kentucky-Old Dominion would end up my favorite non-playoff bowl last season, after all. But there are five matchups I'm particularly excited about.
Cricket Celebration Bowl: Jackson State vs. South Carolina State (Dec. 14)
Four weeks into the 2024 season, Jackson State and SC State were a combined 3-4 and ranked 48th and 89th, respectively, in my FCS SP+ rankings. Now they're 20-4 and ranked 10th and 20th. Since a frustrating 41-20 loss at Grambling in Week 4, T.C. Taylor's JSU Tigers have won nine in a row by an average of 40-16 and cruised to the SWAC title last week with a 28-point win over Southern. Chennis Berry's SC State Bulldogs, meanwhile, have won eight in a row by an average of 42-18 since a Week 3 loss to Georgia Southern.
These are the two best teams in the HBCU universe -- even including FCS playoff participant Tennessee State -- and among JSU running back Irv Mulligan and safety Robert McDaniel and SC State receivers Caden High and Justin Smith-Brown and pass rushers Ashaad Hall and Jayden Broughton, there's plenty of star power to go around.
StaffDNA Cure Bowl: Ohio vs. Jacksonville State (Dec. 20)
Granted, I would have been more excited about this one had Ohio's Tim Albin (Charlotte) and JSU's Rich Rodriguez (West Virginia) not already taken different jobs, but this game features two Group of 5 teams that finished the regular season in torrid form.
JSU won Conference USA in just its second FBS season, thanks primarily to a sexy, Rich Rod-style run game that has produced a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Tre Stewart and quarterback Tyler Huff. They combined for 368 yards and four touchdowns in the 52-12 CUSA championship blowout of Western Kentucky. Ohio, meanwhile, got wrecked by the transfer portal last offseason -- keep the Bobcats in mind when you're watching former Ohio quarterback Kurtis Rourke starting for Indiana in the CFP -- but rolled to the MAC title anyway, winning its past six games by an average of 38-10. The Ohio defense facing the JSU offense is appointment viewing.
Birmingham Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt (Dec. 27)
I love it when two of the season's main characters get paired. Georgia Tech began Florida State's 2024 disintegration with a last-minute win in Dublin and went on to upset Miami (playing a major role in the Hurricanes' elimination from CFP contention) and nearly upset Georgia (which would have done the same), eventually falling in eight overtimes. It was just about the most memorable way possible to go 7-5. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, beat Alabama for the first time in 40 years (playing a major role in the Crimson Tide's elimination from CFP contention) and nearly upset Texas as well. It was just about the most memorable way possible to go 6-6.
If we were to award a national He's Got That Dog In Him Trophy, it would likely go to the tough-as-hell quarterback of the winning team here, either Vandy's Diego Pavia or Tech's Haynes King. But even without said award, this should be a must-watch.
Go Bowling Military Bowl: East Carolina vs. NC State (Dec. 28)
On Jan. 1, 1992, in front of 59,322 in Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, quarterback Jeff Blake and ECU came back from 34-17 in the final 10 minutes to knock off NC State 37-34. Pirates fans stormed the field afterward, and according to newspaper reports, some ECU fans even dug up part of the "E" in the P-I-R-A-T-E-S lettering in one of the end zones. But compared with what some officials feared might happen -- riotous ECU fans had torn up whatever they could find following an upset of NC State in Raleigh in 1987, which had caused NC State to end the series between the schools -- this was tame.
This is a long way of saying that playing NC State means a lot to ECU fans, and the Pirates usually play their best when they're lined up against the Wolfpack. They've won 10 of the past 19 in the series, and if the entertainment value of a bowl game is derived primarily from "How hard are these teams trying, and how loud is the crowd?" this one should grade out quite well.
Kinder's Texas Bowl: Baylor vs. LSU (Dec. 31)
"Smoking-hot team on the rise faces angry blue blood" seems like it could create any number of results. After falling from 12-2 to 6-7 to 3-9 over the previous two seasons and beginning 2024 with just a 2-4 record, it seemed Baylor's primary role in the 2024-25 postseason conversation would be hiring a new coach. Instead, Dave Aranda's Bears charged to six straight wins to finish 8-4 with junior quarterback Sawyer Robertson and freshman running back Bryson Washington emerging as potential 2025 stars.
LSU, meanwhile, was poised to make a CFP run before a dire three-game losing streak -- with each loss by double digits -- changed the tenor of its season significantly. The Tigers rallied to beat Vanderbilt and Oklahoma to go 8-4, but playing in Houston on New Year's Eve wasn't quite what they envisioned for the postseason. Have they packed it in? Or do they show up angry and ready to send a message?
Oh, so close
Pop-Tarts Bowl: No. 13 Miami vs. No. 18 Iowa State (Dec. 28)
ReliaQuest Bowl: No. 11 Alabama vs. Michigan (Dec. 31)
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: No. 15 South Carolina vs. No. 20 Illinois (Dec. 31)
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: No. 14 Ole Miss vs. Duke (Jan. 2)
The biggest conundrum of the new bowl season is how much the biggest bowls outside the playoff matter. These four will tell us a lot. The three SEC teams that all suffered one loss too many and narrowly missed out on a CFP bid will take the field as double-digit favorites in various and sundry Florida stadiums. Will they be out to prove a point? Will they have lost double-digit players to opt-outs? And will quarterback Cam Ward really play in Miami's bowl game, as he suggested on social media, instead of opting out like top NFL draft prospects tend to do? If these games are awesome, bowl season as a whole will have been awesome, but there are no guarantees.
Finishing strong
One method I enjoy for measuring which teams are particularly hot or cold is taking a weighted five-game average of how much teams are over or underachieving against SP+ projections (weighted so that the most recent game takes on five-times weight, the second-most recent game four-times weight and so on).
At the end of the regular season, there were 20 teams with a weighted average of plus-10 PPG or better. That list includes a playoff team (Arizona State), some bowl-ineligible teams and a few others whose games have already been mentioned (Michigan, Ohio, Jacksonville State, Baylor, Georgia Tech). We'll omit Marshall, too, since the Thundering Herd are playing with an interim coach. But you should take a good look at a few other teams, listed with their PPG overachievement, that probably didn't want the regular season to end when it did.
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: Florida (+10.3) vs. Tulane (Dec. 20)
Myrtle Beach Bowl: UTSA (+10.0) vs. Coastal Carolina (Dec. 23)
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Texas Tech (+14.5) vs. Arkansas (Dec. 27)
DirecTV Holiday Bowl: No. 21 Syracuse (+10.3) vs. Washington State (Dec. 27)
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: Boston College (+14.8) vs. Nebraska (Dec. 28)
Valero Alamo Bowl: No. 23 Colorado (+14.2) vs. No. 17 BYU (Dec. 28)
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl: Louisville (+10.6) vs. Washington (Dec. 31)
Of these, the All-Big 12 Colorado-BYU matchup is the highest profile, though BC-Nebraska, Louisville-Washington and Texas Tech-Arkansas, an SWC homage, all have spreads within 5 points.
Embrace the silliness
Art of Sport LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk: No. 24 UNLV vs. California (Dec. 18)
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Fresno State vs. Northern Illinois (Dec. 23)
Pop-Tarts Bowl: No. 13 Miami vs. No. 18 Iowa State (Dec. 28)
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl: Miami (Ohio) vs. Colorado State (Dec. 28)
Duke's Mayo Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Minnesota (Jan. 3)
At this point, with opt-outs, interims and whatnot, bowls have almost gone back to what they were originally intended to be: exhibitions that celebrate teams for a job well done (but aren't necessarily meant to be counted as anything real). And some bowls have figured out how to truly embrace that. What was the most memorable moment of last year's bowl season? The murder of a pastry.
What's the most celebrated recent bowl tradition? A mayo bath.
MAYO DUMP. pic.twitter.com/pEqLT19Zc5
— Duke's Mayo Bowl (@DukesMayoBowl) December 28, 2023
Who is the best bowl mascot? Spuddy Buddy
We've had eggnog baths and smoothie baths and, of course, the Potato Bowl's french fry bath, but these are still the gold standards. Throw in a bowl sponsored by Snoop Dogg and a bowl hosted by Gronk, and you've got five bowls that are just guaranteed to be a good time. Hopefully, the games themselves are good too, but even if they aren't, you'll be entertained for three or four hours. What else are we asking for over the holidays?
Who starts the 2025 season 1-0?
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: Texas A&M vs. USC (Dec. 27)
Sometimes bowls are prisms into what a given team might look like next fall. They can still be fun jumping-off points in that regard. I didn't see a ton of bowls that qualified as such this year, but this one, pitting an A&M team trying to establish an identity around quarterback Marcel Reed against a USC team that was a bit more dynamic (if also sometimes scattershot) once sophomore Jayden Maiava took over behind center, is appealing.
Can a prolific QB go out with a W?
Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl: No. 25 Memphis vs. West Virginia (Dec. 17)
Transperfect Music City Bowl: No. 19 Missouri vs. Iowa (Dec. 30)
68 Ventures Bowl: Bowling Green vs. Arkansas State (Dec. 26)
Memphis' Seth Henigan, Missouri's Brady Cook and Bowling Green's Connor Bazelak (himself a onetime Mizzou starter) have combined for 34,895 career passing yards, 213 TD passes and lots of wins. Henigan and Cook also spent their full eligibility at one school and took their teams to particularly high elevation levels.
A Memphis win over an interim-coached WVU will likely result in Memphis' fourth ranked finish in 11 years (and first in five). A Mizzou win over Iowa -- in a game without either Iowa star RB Kaleb Johnson or Mizzou WR Luther Burden III -- will produce the Tigers' second straight season with double-digit wins. And a BGSU win over Arkansas State will give the Falcons eight wins for the first time since their 2015 MAC title season. There are stakes here, and the star QBs will likely get their teams to play pretty hard.
Congratulations, you get to play a service academy!
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Navy (Dec. 27)
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl: Marshall vs. No. 22 Army (Dec. 28)
Navy has won five of its past six bowl games. Army has won four of five bowls under Jeff Monken and seven of 10 all time. Air Force, which unfortunately didn't get things turned around in time to reach 6-6 this season, has won six of seven bowls.
Preparing for a service academy option team when you're dealing with roster turnover and signing day and all the other things that are occupying your (and your players') attention in December is just an incredibly unpleasant experience. And this year, the honor of getting really annoyed by these teams falls to Oklahoma and the aforementioned interim-coached Marshall. Marshall's defense was good this year, and OU's was great. We'll see if that matters in the slightest.
Redemption time
Boca Raton Bowl: James Madison vs. Western Kentucky (Dec. 18)
GameAbove Sports Bowl: Toledo vs. Pittsburgh (Dec. 26)
Rate Bowl: Kansas State vs. Rutgers (Dec. 26)
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: Louisiana vs. TCU (Dec. 28)
Bahamas Bowl: Liberty vs. Buffalo (Jan. 4)
Above, we talked about teams that finished the regular season in torrid form. Now let's talk about teams that either did the exact opposite or just simply dropped the ball late in the season.
Pitt started 7-0 and was working into the CFP conversation; now the Panthers are 7-5. Kansas State was 7-1 and a Big 12 front-runner but ended 8-4. James Madison, Liberty and Toledo were all G5 conference favorites but stumbled to a combined 12 losses. Western Kentucky beat Jacksonville State to reach the CUSA championship but got obliterated in the title game rematch. Louisiana survived one QB injury to reach the Sun Belt championship but couldn't cope with another one in the title game. Some of these teams will likely wrap their season with a meek performance. But at least a couple will find redemption and a shinier end to a frustrating year.
7-6 sounds so much better than 6-7
There are 18 6-6 teams competing in bowls, and quite a few of them will finish the season with losing records. We've covered a lot of these above -- West Virginia against Memphis, Cal against UNLV, Fresno State against NIU, Oklahoma against Navy, Vanderbilt against Georgia Tech, Arkansas against Texas Tech, USC against A&M, Nebraska against Boston College, NC State against ECU, Washington against Louisville, Virginia Tech against Minnesota -- but we've got a few more as well, including two pitting .500 teams against each other.
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl: South Alabama vs. Western Michigan (Dec. 14)
Myrtle Beach Bowl: UTSA vs. Coastal Carolina (Dec. 23)
Per SP+, South Alabama is the best 6-6 team in the Group of 5; the Jaguars could have easily ended in the Sun Belt race but went 1-4 in one-score finishes. Western Michigan, meanwhile, started MAC play 4-0 thanks to close wins but faded down the stretch. UTSA is in the "finishing strong" section above because of how well the Roadrunners played in rallying from 2-4 to 6-6, while Coastal did the opposite, starting 4-1 and landing in the same place.
Hawai'i Bowl: South Florida vs. San José State (Dec. 24)
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: North Texas vs. Texas State (Jan. 3)
Wasabi Fenway Bowl: North Carolina vs. UConn (Dec. 28)
USF started slowly and finally picked up down the stretch, North Texas did the exact opposite, and North Carolina went through about 38 momentum shifts before losing the last two games and firing Mack Brown. There are a lot of ways to go 6-6, I guess.
First bowl, interim coach
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Sam Houston vs. Georgia Southern (Dec. 19)
K.C. Keeler walked Sam Houston across the threshold, winning the Spring 2021 FCS national title, leading the Bearkats into FBS, losing the first eight games, then rallying to win 12 of the next 16 and nearly make the CUSA championship game. With that, it was evidently time for a new challenge; Keeler took the Temple job, and offensive coordinator and interim coach Brad Cornelsen will lead SHSU onto the field for its first bowl. It's probably fitting that the Bearkats will face another recent FCS convert that saw quick success and lost its head coach after two FBS seasons. Georgia Southern has settled into a regular rhythm of ups and downs and is wrapping up its best season in at least four years. The New Orleans Bowl usually gets pretty weird and wild. There are plenty of reasons to watch.