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 2022, 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 conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...

, 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 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 ...

. 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.

College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff consists of seven bowls: the Rose Bowl,

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, and the College Football Playoff National Championship. For the 2022-23 season, the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl will serve as national semifinals for the

2023 College Football Playoff National Championship The 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship is a college football bowl game that is scheduled to be played on January 9, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The ninth College Football Playoff National Championship, the g ...

in Los Angeles, California, meaning that the teams ranked #1 through #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 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

, the Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference,

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

and Southeastern Conference. The highest-ranked champion from the "Group of Five" conferences ( American Athletic Conference,

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

, MAC,

Mountain West The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

, and

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

) is guaranteed a berth if the group's top team is not in the playoff. The following tie-ins exist for bowls in the years they are not hosting the national semifinals: * Rose Bowl — Big Ten #1 vs.

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

#1 *

— SEC #1 vs. Big 12 #1 * Orange Bowl —

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

#1 vs. SEC #2, Big Ten #2, or

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

* Cotton Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection) * Fiesta Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection) * Peach Bowl — at-large or "Group of Five" (committee selection)

2022-23 "New Year's Six" bowl games

*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.

Bowl Championship Series

From 1998 to 2013, the national champion was determined on the field by the

. The Bowl Championship Series consisted of five games, the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, and

, as well as the

BCS Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college fo ...

. 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.

Other Bowl Games in 2022

The bowls that are not part of the CFP have contractual ties to specific conferences. For the 2019–20 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 .) 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: # A team that does not have a "counted" win against an FCS team, but beat an FCS team that did not meet the 90% scholarship requirement, and would have been bowl eligible had that game counted. # A team that plays 13 games in its regular season (excluding conference championship games, as that was previously referenced; a 13th game is possible if a team plays at Hawaii) and has a 6–7 record, since six wins is normally bowl eligible. # A team in the second year of an FCS to FBS transfer "probationary period" that would have been eligible had it been a full FBS member. # If there are still bowl openings remaining, they are given to teams with a 5–7 record in order of their four-year football Academic Progress Rate (APR). 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. 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. 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.

Records vs. selection order

The contracts specify that the respective bowl committees receive a certain ''choice'' of teams. The selection order lists shown below (#1, #2, #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 The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Cheez-It Bowl and Florida Classic. The gam ...

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.

2022 Order of selection

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.

American Athletic Conference

2020-2025: Guaranteed Bids: * The Military Bowl * The Fenway Bowl * The

Armed Forces Bowl The Armed Forces Bowl, formerly the Fort Worth Bowl from 2003 to 2005, is an annual postseason college football bowl game. First played in 2003, the game is normally held at the 45,000-seat Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian ...

(even years) or the Hawaii Bowl (odd years) * The Independence Bowl (2022) Four Bids from the following: * The

Birmingham Bowl The Birmingham Bowl is a post-season NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game played annually in Birmingham, Alabama. First held in 2006, the game is owned and operated by ESPN Events. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UA ...

* The Gasparilla Bowl * The

First Responder Bowl The First Responder Bowl is an NCAA post-season college football bowl game played annually in the Dallas, Texas, area. The bowl was first held on January 1, 2011, and since 2014 has been contested in late December. The bowl was held at the Cot ...

* The

Boca Raton Bowl The Boca Raton Bowl is an annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned post-season Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played in Boca Raton, Florida, since December 2014 on the campus of Fl ...

* The Frisco Bowl * The

Cure Bowl The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year in Orlando, Florida since 2015. It was originally held at Camping World Stadium before moving to Exploria Stadium in 2022. The Cure Bowl i ...

* The

Myrtle Beach Bowl The Myrtle Beach Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game first played in December 2020 in the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. Coastal Carolina University hosts the game at its Brooks Stadium in Con ...

* The New Mexico Bowl

Atlantic Coast Conference

2022: 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 * #1 College Football Playoff. ACC Champion (if not selected for the playoff) goes to the Orange Bowl Tier #1 * The

Cheez-It Bowl The Cheez-It Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group which also organizes the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Cla ...

versus Big 12 * The

Gator Bowl The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida, operated by Gator Bowl Sports. It has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised natio ...

versus SEC * The

Duke's Mayo Bowl The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2002. The game currently features a matchup between a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) ...

versus SEC (odd-numbered years) or Big Ten (even-numbered years) * The

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

versus Pac-12 * The Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl versus Big Ten * The Holiday Bowl versus Pac-12 * The Fenway Bowl versus the American Athletic * The Military Bowl versus the American Athletic Tier #2 * The Gasparilla Bowl versus SEC or AAC or Pac-12 * The

versus SEC or AAC * The

versus Big XII or C-USA or AAC

Big 12 Conference

2022: * #1 College Football Playoff. The champion goes to the

if not selected for playoffs. The Sugar Bowl gets filled by a Big 12 team if the champion is in the playoffs * #2 The

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and ...

versus Pac-12. * #3 The

versus ACC. * #4 The Texas Bowl versus SEC. * #5 The Liberty Bowl versus SEC. * #6 The Guaranteed Rate Bowl versus Big Ten #7. * #7 The

Big Ten Conference

2022: * #1 College Football Playoff. Champion goes to Rose Bowl if not selected for playoffs. The Rose Bowl gets filled by a Big Ten team if champion is in the playoffs * #2 The

versus SEC * #3 The

ReliaQuest Bowl The ReliaQuest Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, usually on New Year's Day. The event has been formerly called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1995 and the Outback Bowl from 1996 t ...

versus SEC * #4 The

versus ACC (even-numbered years) or the Las Vegas Bowl versus Pac-12 (odd-numbered years) * #5 The Music City Bowl versus SEC * #6 The Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl versus ACC * #7 The Guaranteed Rate Bowl versus Big 12 #6 * #8 The Quick Lane Bowl versus MAC *

Conference USA

2022: Guaranteed Bowl Bid * The Bahamas Bowl versus MAC * The

New Orleans Bowl The New Orleans Bowl is an NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually since 2001. It is normally held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans; when the Superdome and the rest of the city suffered damage due to ...

versus Sun Belt * The Independence Bowl versus BYU * The Hawaii Bowl versus MWC (even years) C-USA will get 4 or 5 additional bowl bids from these 12 bowls (decision made in conjunction with ESPN, who owns these bowls): * The LendingTree Bowl * The Frisco Bowl * The New Mexico Bowl * The Gasparilla Bowl * The

* The

Camellia Bowl Camellia Bowl can refer to one of three college football bowl games: * Camellia Bowl (1948) The Camellia Bowl was a post-season major college football bowl game played at McNaspy Stadium in Lafayette, Louisiana, on December 30, 1948, between t ...

* The

* The Fenway Bowl * The

Mid-American Conference

2022: Guaranteed Bowl Bid: * The Bahamas Bowl versus Conference USA * The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl versus Mountain West * The

Arizona Bowl The Arizona Bowl is a postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that began play in the 2015 season. The game is held at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, and starting in 2020 has tie-ins with the Mountain West Conference and Mid-Ameri ...

versus Mountain West * The Quick Lane Bowl versus Big Ten 2 Bids from the following: * The

* The

* The Frisco Bowl * The LendingTree Bowl * The

* The New Mexico Bowl

Mountain West Conference

2022: * The LA Bowl versus Pac-12. * The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl versus MAC. * The New Mexico Bowl versus C-USA. * The

versus MAC. * The Hawaii Bowl versus AAC or C-USA. 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 * The Guaranteed Rate Bowl versus Big 12 or Big Ten

Pac-12 Conference

2022: * #1 College Football Playoff. Champion goes to Rose Bowl unless they are selected for playoffs. The Rose Bowl gets filled by a Pac-12 team if the champion is in the playoffs. Guaranteed Bids: * The

versus Big 12 #2. * The Holiday Bowl versus ACC. * The Las Vegas Bowl versus Big Ten #4. * The

versus ACC. * The LA Bowl versus Mountain West. The Pac-12 Conference will also have a seventh bowl tie-in with an ESPN Events operated bowl game.

Southeastern Conference

2022 * #1 College Football Playoff. Champion goes to

unless they are selected for playoffs. The Sugar Bowl gets filled by an SEC team if the champion is in the playoffs. * #2 The

versus Big Ten Tier #1: Conference, in consultation with bowls and schools, assign teams to the following six bowls: * The

versus Big Ten * The Las Vegas Bowl versus Pac-12 (even-numbered years) OR the

versus ACC (odd-numbered years) * The

versus ACC * The Music City Bowl versus Big Ten * The Texas Bowl versus Big 12 * The Liberty Bowl versus Big 12 Tier #2 * The

* The Gasparilla Bowl

Sun Belt Conference

2022 Guaranteed Bids: * The

versus Conference USA * The LendingTree Bowl versus MAC 3 Bids from the following: * The

* The

* The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl * The

* The Frisco Bowl * The

* The New Mexico Bowl

Division I FBS Independents

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 2022, some of the contractual obligations are the following: * BYU – BYU has a deal with the Independence Bowl and (via ESPN) the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, but ended up being selected to the New Mexico Bowl *

– eligible for ACC-contracted bowls. However, Notre Dame cannot be selected by an ACC bowl if there is an eligible ACC team with two or more wins than Notre Dame. For example, a 9–3 Duke team must be chosen over a 7–5 Notre Dame team. Notre Dame was selected to the

2019 Camping World Bowl The 2019 Camping World Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2019, with kickoff at 12:00 p.m. EST on ABC. It was the 30th edition of the Camping World Bowl, and was one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 ...

in lieu of the 3rd-place ACC team, the third time since 2014 they have taken an ACC slot. Notre Dame can also be selected to play against ACC teams in the Orange Bowl twice in the span from 2014-2025, and has no limit in playing in any other New Year's Six bowls if selected (Notre Dame has yet to make an Orange Bowl in that time; its most recent New Year's Six Bowl was the

2021 Rose Bowl The 2021 Rose Bowl (branded as the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Capital One for sponsorship reasons) was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2021, with kickoff at 3:00 p.m. CST at AT&T ...

). In 2022, Notre Dame was selected to the

. * Liberty, New Mexico State and

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

- eligible for a bowl game with 6 wins. Liberty and UMass have no tie-ins to any particular bowl game, while NMSU may be selected to the

in lieu of a Sun Belt team. In 2022, Liberty was selected to the

and New Mexico State was selected to the Quick Lane Bowl.

Division I FCS

For the only bowl game in the Football Championship Subdivision, the Celebration Bowl, the

Southwestern Athletic Conference The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in t ...

and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference both have tie-ins. Each conference must send their champion to the game.

Division II

Lone Star Conference

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 Heritage Bowl (formerly the Corsicana Bowl) is an annual NCAA Division II post-season college football bowl game held in Corsicana, Texas at Tiger Stadium. Established in 2017 by Antwone "Tony" Taulton, the game is played each year on the f ...

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association

The

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, headquartered ...

has tie-ins to three bowls: #

Mineral Water Bowl The Mineral Water Bowl is an annual American NCAA Division II college football bowl game between teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and an at large opponent hosted in Excelsior Springs, Missouri at Tiger Stadium. History ...

: The MIAA must send its highest-ranked team not in the Division II tournament. # Live United Bowl: The MIAA is one of two conferences (the other being the LSC) from which the bowl can draw its at-large team. # Corsicana Bowl: The MIAA is one of three conferences from which the bowl can draw its teams.

Great American Conference

The

Great American Conference The Great American Conference (GAC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, with headquarters located in Russellvill ...

has two tie-ins: # Live United Bowl: The GAC must send its highest-ranked team not in the Division II tournament. # Corsicana Bowl: The GAC is one of three conferences (the others being the MIAA and LSC) from which the bowl can draw its teams.

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has a tie-in with the Mineral Water Bowl and sends the highest-ranking team not in the tournament.

References

Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Bids To College Bowl Games *Bids Sports competitions bids