The New Year's Six, sometimes abbreviated as NY6, are the following

NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

(FBS)

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

s: 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 only ...

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

, Cotton Bowl,

Peach Bowl The Peach Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played annually in Atlanta, Georgia, since December 30, 1968. The first three Peach Bowls were played at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Grant Field on the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech c ...

, and Fiesta Bowl. These games are traditionally played annually on or around

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

and represent six of the ten oldest bowl games played at the FBS level. As of the 2024 season, the New Year's Six hosts the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

(CFP). Twelve teams are selected and seeded, following the conclusion of regular-season play, for the single-elimination tournament. Eight teams meet in first-round games, played at campus sites. The four winners then advance to play the four highest-ranked conference champions, who received a bye; these quarterfinal games are played as four of the New Year's Six games. The four quarterfinal winners then advance to the semifinals, played as two of the New Year's Six games. The two semifinal winners then advance to a championship game. For the 2014 through 2023 seasons, two of the New Year's Six games (selected annually on a rotating basis) served as semifinal games in a four-team playoff, while teams appearing in the other four New Year's Six games were not eligible to appear in the national championship game. These six top-tier bowl games rotated the hosting of the two CFP semifinal games, which determine the teams that play in the final CFP National Championship game. The rotation was set on a three-year cycle with the following pairings: Rose–Sugar, Orange–Cotton, and Peach–Fiesta. The National Championship game may be considered part of the New Year's Six, depending on context.

History leading to the creation and expansion of the CFP

The

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a college football post-season 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 America ...

(BCS) was a selection system that created five bowl game match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

, including an opportunity for the top two teams to compete in the

BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game 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 football season as one of four des ...

. The system was in place for the 1998 through 2013 seasons and in 2014 was replaced by the

. The four-team playoffs consist of two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship. If New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the traditional New Year's Day games are played on January 2 in deference to the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

's week 17 games. In June 2012, the BCS conference presidents approved the

to replace the Bowl Championship Series. Three bowls—

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

, and Orange—because of their contracts with Power Five conferences, were selected to be part of the rotating semifinal playoff games, with three more bowls to be named. Because of issues about fairness and the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

's status as a BCS automatic qualifier, conference commissioners began to consider accommodating the

Group of Five conferences In college football, the Group of Five (G5) are five athletic conferences whose members are part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdiv ...

with a seventh participating bowl. On November 12, 2012, in Denver, the conference commissioners granted the top Group of Five conference champion a guaranteed slot in one of the six premier bowls. In July 2013, the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Fiesta Bowl, and the

were selected as the other three rotating semifinal playoff bowls, ahead of the Holiday Bowl. Also, the conference commissioners selected

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. It is also the home of the Cotton Bowl Classic ...

as the first host of the College Football Playoff National Championship game, held on January 12, 2015. When the playoff expanded to 12 teams beginning in 2024, the six bowls were designated as the quarterfinals and semifinals on a rotating basis. Four first-round games, added to the expanded playoff and to be held before the six bowls, are contested at campus sites.

Former bowl game conference tie-ins

Three of the bowls had traditional tie-ins with the specified conference champions in the years they were not hosting playoff games (2014–2023): * Rose Bowl: Big Ten vs. Pac-12 * Sugar Bowl: SEC vs. Big 12 * Orange Bowl: ACC vs. Big Ten, SEC, or Notre Dame When the conference champion is unavailable, the bowls invite the next-best team from that conference. The Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach Bowls have no conference tie-ins; as such, the best conference champion from the Group of Five will play in one of those bowls if it does not qualify for the CFP semifinal until 2024 when all games are part of the playoff and thus removes all conference tie ins.

History and schedule

Games are listed in chronological order, with final CFP rankings, and win–loss records prior to the respective bowl being played.

2014 season

2015 season

2016 season

2017 season

2018 season

2019 season

Source:

2020 season

Source:

2021 season

2022 season

2023 season

2024 season

Future games

The below games dates have been announced by CFP organizers. Starting with the 2024 season (2024–25 bowl season), with the expansion of the playoff from four to 12 teams, games not hosting the national semifinals will host the national quarterfinals. : Denotes CFP semifinal games : Denotes CFP quarterfinal games Source:

New Year's Six bowl appearances

New Year's Six performance

New Year's Six bowl appearances by team

^ ''Denotes CFP Quarterfinal'', + ''Denotes CFP Semifinal''

New Year's Six bowl appearances by conference

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

has never appeared in the New Year's Six.
* In 2020, Notre Dame played as part of the ACC due to COVID-19

College Football Playoff appearances and performances

College Football Playoff performance

College Football Playoff National Championship appearances

College Football Playoff National Championship appearances by team

College Football Playoff National Championship appearances by conference

References

{{New Year

Cotton Bowl Classic Fiesta Bowl Orange Bowl Peach Bowl Rose Bowl Game Sugar Bowl