List of college bowl games

The following is a list of current, defunct, and proposed college football bowl games. Six bowl games are currently part of the College Football Playoff, a selection system that creates bowl matchups involving twelve of the top-ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. There are also a number of other college football postseason invitationals, as well as several all-star games.

For nearly a century, bowl games were the purview of only the very best teams, but a steady proliferation of new bowl games required more teams, with 70 participating teams by the 2010–11 bowl season, then 80 participating teams by the 2015–16 bowl season. As a result, the NCAA has steadily reduced the criteria for bowl eligibility, allowing teams with a non-winning (6–6) record in 2010, further reducing requirements to allow teams with outright losing records (5-7) to be invited since 2012. Of the teams with losing records, the team with the best Academic Progress Rate score would be chosen first.^[1] While losing teams in bowl games has now become commonplace, there have been a few losing teams who have played in bowl games before the changes in bowl eligibility: 1945 Gator Bowl – Florida Gators (2-3-3), 1963 Sun Bowl – SMU (4-6), 1970 Tangerine Bowl – William & Mary – (5-6), and the 2001 New Orleans Bowl – North Texas (5-6).^[2] For the 2016–17 bowl season, 25% of the bowl participants (20 teams) did not have a winning record.

The tables below (College Football Playoff games, Other current Division I FBS bowl games) reflect the changes for the 2018–19 bowl season.

Bowl games are not limited to the Bowl Subdivision; teams in the three lower divisions of the NCAA (the championship subdivision, and Divisions II and III) are also allowed to participate in bowl games. The playoff structure in those three divisions discourages most high-caliber teams from participating in bowl games, as teams would rather contest for the national championship than play in a bowl game. The same basic guidelines for bowl eligibility apply for those contests. As of 2017, one bowl game exists for the championship subdivision, four bowls serve Division II, and ten exist for teams in Division III (not including the Stagg Bowl, which is not a bowl in the same sense but a name for the Division III playoff tournament's championship game).

Past and present community college bowl games, not sanctioned by the NCAA, are also listed.

College Football Playoff games

Six major bowl games, known as the New Year's Six, rotate the hosting of the two semifinal games which determine the teams that play in the final College Football Playoff National Championship game.^[3] The New Year's Six includes six of the ten oldest bowl games (missing the Sun, Gator, Citrus and Liberty bowls), continuing their original history of pitting the very best teams in the country against each other. These six games focus on the top 12 teams in the rankings, with only five teams ranked lower than 12th (all five were still ranked in the top 20) having ever played in the New Year's Six since the College Football Playoff system was inaugurated.

^ The Rose Bowl did not add a sponsor to its name until the 1998 season. Unlike other bowls, which give the sponsor's name precedence ahead of the bowl's name (effectively changing the title of the game), the Rose Bowl adds the sponsor as "presented by", after the words Rose Bowl.
* One-time move due to World War II travel restrictions after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
† One-time move due to damage to the Superdome from Hurricane Katrina.

Other current Division I FBS bowl games

Besides the six bowl games that are part of the College Football Playoff, there are a number of other postseason invitationals. Generally, two conferences will agree to send teams of a particular standing to a game beforehand. For instance, the Rose Bowl traditionally features the Big Ten and Pac-12 conference champions. Generally, the payout to the participating teams in a bowl game is closely correlated to its prestige. By comparison, each of the former BCS bowls (including the national championship game) had a payout of $18 million.

Non-FBS bowl games

Proposed games

The number of bowl games have risen steadily, reaching 41 (including the national championship game) by the 2015 bowl season. To fill the 80 available bowl slots, a record 15 teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—including three with a record of 5–7. This situation led directly to the NCAA Division I Council imposing a three-year moratorium on new bowl games in April 2016.^[12]

Since 2010, organizers and boosters have continued to propose other bowl games—some of these proposals have since been dropped, while others are active proposals that have been placed on hold during the NCAA moratorium.

Two proposed games, the Cure Bowl and Christmas Bowl, were turned down by the NCAA for 2010.^[18] The Cure Bowl was eventually added in 2014, for the 2015 season.

In August 2013, the Detroit Lions announced that it would hold a new bowl game at Ford Field beginning in 2014, holding Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference tie-ins, despite the existence of the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl^[19][20] While Pizza Bowl organizers attempted to move the game to Comerica Park (a baseball stadium across the street from Ford Field), these plans never came to fruition.^[7][21] In August 2014, the Lions announced that the new game would be known as the Quick Lane Bowl, and play its inaugural game on December 26, 2014. In a statement to Crain's Detroit Business, Motor City Bowl co-founder Ken Hoffman confirmed that there would be no Little Caesars Pizza Bowl for 2014.^[7][8]

In June 2013, ESPN.com reported that the so-called "Group of Five" conferences—the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West Conference, and Sun Belt Conference—were considering adding one or more new bowl games once the NCAA's current moratorium on new bowls expires after the 2013 season. This move was driven by a trend for the "Power Five" conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC) to play one another in bowl games. The 2013 season, the last of the current four-year bowl cycle, will have 16 bowls that involve two teams from "Power Five" leagues. The 2014 season, the first of a new six-year bowl cycle, will have at least 19, and possibly more, matchups of "Power Five" teams. The "Group of Five" was apparently concerned that this trend would mean that its teams might not have available bowl slots.^[17]

According to reports, the 2010 Christmas Bowl proposal would have involved a Mountain West team against an opponent from either the Pac-12 or The American. As for The American, it has suggested a new bowl game, most likely at Marlins Park in Miami. Two other venues of "Group of Five" schools in Florida—Spectrum Stadium (UCF, Orlando) and FAU Stadium (Florida Atlantic, Boca Raton)—are being considered for other potential bowls. A possible bowl in Little Rock would pit C-USA and the Sun Belt. Finally, the director of the current Little Caesars Bowl indicated that he had been in contact with officials from all of the "Group of Five" about starting new bowl games in Ireland (most likely Dublin), Dubai, and either Toronto or Nassau.^[17] Recently, though, reports have indicated the proposed games in Ireland and Dubai would be unworkable.^[22]

The first new bowl to be confirmed for 2014 was the Camellia Bowl, a game created by ESPN that will be played in Montgomery, Alabama. It will have tie-ins with the MAC and Sun Belt, and the contract for the game will run through the 2019 season. ESPN was also reported to be in negotiations to take over ownership of the existing Heart of Dallas Bowl and establish a new bowl game in Boca Raton.^[23]

Another ownership group interested in starting a Montgomery-based bowl at Alabama State's stadium has reportedly switched focus to Charleston, South Carolina. In the face of obstacles related to a NCAA ban on playing postseason games at predetermined locations in South Carolina due to the Confederate battle flag being flown at a civil war monument on the State House grounds, the ownership group instead chose to stage the Medal of Honor Bowl all-star game at Johnson Hagood Stadium beginning in 2014.^[24] However, with the Confederate flag's removal from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, the NCAA lifted its ban that day.^[25] As such, on August 27 of that year, the Medal of Honor Bowl announced their plans to become a traditional postseason bowl game beginning on December 18, 2016, pending NCAA approval. The all-star game format was not played that year as a result.^[26] However, in April 2016, the NCAA announced a moratorium on new bowl games;^[12] organizers have subsequently announced plans to hold the bowl (as an all-star game again) in January 2018.^[27]

Map of bowl games

Belk Bowl

Military Bowl

Pinstripe Bowl

Gator Bowl

Citrus Bowl

Camping World Bowl

Cure Bowl

Boca Raton Bowl

Orange Bowl

Bahamas Bowl

Gasparilla Bowl

Outback Bowl

Quick Lane Bowl

Peach Bowl

Music City Bowl

Liberty Bowl

Birmingham Bowl

Camellia Bowl

Dollar General
Bowl

Independence
Bowl

New Orleans
Bowl

Sugar Bowl

Texas
Bowl

Alamo Bowl

Frisco Bowl

Cotton Bowl

First Responder
Bowl

Armed Forces
Bowl

Sun Bowl

New Mexico Bowl

Fiesta Bowl

Cheez-It Bowl

Arizona Bowl

Las Vegas Bowl

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl

Redbox Bowl

Rose Bowl

Holiday Bowl

Hawai'i Bowl

Number of current FBS bowl games by state

*State also hosts College Football Playoff semifinals in rotation under current CFP format.

All-Star games

Regular season rivalries called bowls

• Empire State Bowl – Columbia and Cornell
• Shula Bowl – Florida International and Florida Atlantic
• Black and Blue Bowl – Memphis and Southern Miss
• Crab Bowl Classic – Maryland and Navy
• Egg Bowl – Mississippi and Mississippi State
• Friends of Coal Bowl – Marshall and West Virginia
• Iron Bowl – Alabama and Auburn
• Magnolia Bowl – LSU and Mississippi
• Palmetto Bowl – Clemson and South Carolina
• Textile Bowl – Clemson and North Carolina State
• Safeway Bowl – North Texas and Southern Methodist

Bowl games played outside of the US

• Bacardi Bowl – seven exhibition games played in Havana, Cuba from 1907–1946
• International Bowl – bowl game played in Toronto, Canada from 2007–2010
• Bahamas Bowl – currently played bowl game in Nassau, Bahamas, since 2014.

Community College bowl games

• Beef Empire Bowl – Garden City, Kansas – defunct
• Brazos Valley Bowl – Bryan, Texas – defunct
• Carrier Dome Bowl – Syracuse, New York – defunct
• C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl – Copperas Cove, Texas
• Citizens Bank Bowl – Pittsburg, Kansas – defunct. Known in its last season as the Football Capital of Kansas Bowl. Hosted 2009 National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship game between Blinn and Fort Scott, which featured future NFL stars Cam Newton and Lavonte David.
• El Toro Bowl – Yuma, Arizona
• The Graphic Edge Bowl – Cedar Falls, Iowa (formerly Coca-Cola Bowl, Like Cola Bowl, Royal Crown Bowl, Pepsi-Cola/Sigler Printing Bowl). This bowl is a doubleheader with the Iowa runner-up playing in the first game and the Iowa champion in the second. The opponents for each game are chosen at-large.
• Garland Shrine Bowl – defunct
• Garland Texas Bowl – Garland, Texas – defunct
• Hospitality Bowl – defunct
• Jayhawk Bowl Classic – Coffeyville, Kansas – defunct
• Industrial Bowl – defunct
• Junior Rose Bowl – defunct
• Little Oil Bowl – defunct
• Midwest Bowl – Chicago – defunct
• Mississippi Bowl – Biloxi, Mississippi
• North Star Bowl – Rochester, Minnesota – defunct
• NJCAA Shrine Bowl – defunct
• Pilgrim's Pride Bowl Classic – defunct
• Real Dairy Bowl – Pocatello, Idaho – defunct
• Red River Bowl – Bedford, Texas – defunct
• Roaring Ranger Bowl – Ranger, Texas – defunct
• Robert A. Bothman Bulldog Bowl – San Mateo, California
• Salt City Bowl – Hutchinson, Kansas
• Silver Bowl – Sterling, Kansas – defunct
• Texas Juco Shrine Bowl – defunct
• Top of the Mountains Bowl – Sandy, Utah – defunct
• Valley of the Sun Bowl – Scottsdale, Arizona
• Wool Bowl – Roswell, New Mexico – defunct

Defunct bowl games

See also

• Automatic bids to college bowl games

References

Further reading

• Oriard, Michael (2009). Bowled Over: Big-Time College Football from the Sixties to the BCS Era. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3329-2.