Football Bowl Games (2024)

FAQs

Are there enough bowl eligible teams this year? ›

Because there were not enough bowl-eligible teams, the Dukes and Gameco*cks are bowl-bound in their second year reclassifying from FCS to FBS. There ended up being 79 bowl-eligible teams to fill 82 spots.

Sitting out bowl games has become a common occurrence in recent years as players look to avoid injury as they prepare to turn pro or enter the transfer portal, but those postseason opt-outs could become a thing of the past, and college football's new NIL rules could play a role.

How Do You Qualify For a Bowl? In order to qualify for a bowl game, a team . 500 or better must win at least six games in the regular season against Division I teams—no more than one of which can be against scholarship-awarding FCS teams.

In 2024, the nature of bowl games will change again. With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, every New Year's Six bowl game will serve as either a quarterfinal or semifinal.

Per the NCAA DI Manual (aka bylaws), the regular season ends on Conference Championship Weekend. That means only games played during the regular season can count towards a team's bowl eligibility. If Army and Navy want to be bowl eligible, then the team would need to already have 6 wins going into the game.

FCS teams who are in the final year of the two-year FBS transition process, if they have at least a 6–6 record. Finally, 5–7 teams that have a top-five Academic Progress Rate (APR) score. This was later adjusted to allow other 5–7 teams to be selected thereafter—in order of their APR.

Some players just could be foregoing their eligibility to prepare for the NFL Draft. But, most players opt-out of bowl games just so they can enter the transfer portal and play for another team next season. The majority of players who opt-out are starters who are essential to their team's success.

Among the top college football bowl opt-outs for the 2023 season are USC's Caleb Williams, Ohio State's Kyle McCord, North Carolina's Drake Maye and Notre Dame's Sam Hartman. Keep scrolling further below as our college football bowl opt out tracker lists every player sitting out of their bowl games.

In order to be considered a Pro Bowler for a given year, a player must either have been one of the initial players selected to the team, or a player who accepts an invitation to the Pro Bowl as an alternate; invited alternates who decline to attend are not considered Pro Bowlers.

Although each game has a specified purse for the teams that play them, that money does not go directly to the coffers of the university in question, but to the account of the conference to which the team belongs and it distributes it among its members accordingly with their own criteria.

How much money do you get for a bowl game? ›

Bowls are popular among coaching staffs because the NCAA allows college teams going to bowl games extra weeks of practice they would otherwise not have, and bowl games pay the teams for their participation. Teams belonging to a conference split the money with their conference mates.

The CFP Selection Committee ranks the top 25 teams and selects the four teams to participate in the semifinal games (Fiesta and Peach). Then, after the contract bowls (Sugar, Rose and Orange) are filled based on conference agreements, the Committee will assign teams to fill the remaining access bowls (Cotton).

— Get ready for more bowl games, not less, as college administrators continue to push for more postseason access in all sports. That's what Bowl Season director Nick Carparelli believes is next after the College Football Playoff expands from four to 12 teams this fall -- and potentially 14 in 2026.

Can the game end in a tie? No, not anymore. Before overtime was introduced in 1995, ties were not uncommon in college football. That ended with the introduction of overtime, which continues until one team outscores the other in any given overtime period and a winner is determined.

If there are too many bowl-eligible teams, it's possible that some teams may not be invited to participate in a bowl game. Typically, these will be G5 schools with six wins and small fan bases.

Army-Navy will share Sat., Dec. 14 with the Celebration Bowl, which kicks off at 12 p.m. Eastern and with the Camellia Bowl, set for 9 p.m. Eastern that night. Army and Navy will square off in its usual 3 p.m. Eastern time slot that day.

The Sun Belt put a whopping 12 of its 14 teams into bowl games and almost finished . 500.

Ohio (Myrtle Beach Bowl), Miami (Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl), Northern Illinois (Camellia Bowl), Eastern Michigan (68 Ventures Bowl) Bowling Green (Quick Lane Bowl) and Toledo (Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl) will represent the MAC in bowl games this season.