College football has been rocked in recent years by conference realignments, NIL and player transfers. Despite the changes, one of the oldest traditions remains: bowl games. These end-of-season games date back to 1902, when Michigan defeated Stanford 49-0 in the Rose Bowl, which was originally called the “Tournament East-West Football Game.”
The college football bowl game schedule will look a little different this year as the College Football Playoff has expanded from four teams to twelve teams. The expanded playoffs were supposed to alleviate much of the consternation over which the teams were competing, but grumblings from Miami, Ole Miss and others show that’s not the case. More teams did nothing to dampen the intrigue of the regular season as some predicted, with weekly upsets upending predictions for the last 12, home field advantage and securing a bye.
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As usual, TV money is driving the changes. ESPN owned the rights to the CFP in a deal that runs through the 2025-2026 season and is worth $470 million per year. In March, ESPN reached a new six-year deal, worth $7.8 billion, running through 2031-2032 to be the rights holder of the playoffs. “This agreement further cements ESPN as the home of college football,” Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, said in a statement when the deal was announced.
Two months later, ESPN reached a five-year deal to sublicense some playoff games to TNT, which will host a pair of CFP first-round games over the next two seasons, after which the cable channel will add two quarterfinals in each of the three subsequent seasons. year.
Under the new CFP arrangement, Big Ten and SEC schools will each receive about $21 million annually, while ACC programs will receive about $13 million and Big 12 members will receive $12 million. Notre Dame, which is independent, is also expected to receive about $12 million. The Group of Five schools share 9% of the revenue, which amounts to just under $2 million per institution.
Here’s what you need to know about the bowl game and playoff schedule for the 2024-2025 college football season.
How many bowl games are there?
There are 36 games outside the College Football Playoff, plus the 11 playoff games that will determine the national champion. The six traditional bowl games on New Year’s Day, including the Rose, Orange and Fiesta, will be the quarterfinals and semifinals of the playoffs.
The bowl schedule begins with the Cricket Celebration Bowl on December 14 and ends with the National Championship match on January 20, almost two weeks after last year’s title match. Major brands Allstate, AT&T, Capital One and Goodyear are once again sponsoring games, as well as some lesser-known names like Scooter’s Coffee, StaffDNA, SRS Distribution and 68 Ventures. Even Snoop Dogg has his own bowl game this year with the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl.
When are bowl games announced?
Most matchups will be revealed during the day on Sunday, December 8 on ESPN. Saturday’s conference title games will determine the pecking order for the games and the playoffs. Disney’s ESPN and ABC networks will be home to almost all bowl games, while Fox, CBS and The CW will each broadcast one game. In May, TNT reached a five-year deal to sublicense some playoff games from ESPN. TNT will host two first-round CFP matches this year.
Who is on the CFP Selection Committee?
The committee consists of 13 members whose job is to rank the top 25 teams, assign the top 12 to the playoff round and assign the bowl locations. According to CFP guidelines, the rankings are based on “member evaluation of the teams’ on-field performance, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, and comparison of results with regular opponents. The playoff format for this season includes five automatic qualifiers of the five top-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids.
Below is the full 2024-2025 bowl game schedule with TV listings.
College football playoff schedule
CFP first round matchup
• Friday, December 20, 8:00 PM ET. Watch on ABC/ESPN
CFP first round matchup
• Saturday, December 21, 12pm ET. Watch on TNT
CFP first round matchup
• Saturday, December 21, 4:00 PM ET. Watch on TNT
CFP first round matchup
• Saturday, December 21, 8:00 PM ET. Watch on ABC/ESPN
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl – CFP Quarterfinals
• Tuesday, December 31, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl – CFP Quarterfinals
• Wednesday, January 1, 1:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Rose Bowl presented by Prudential – CFP quarterfinal
• Wednesday, January 1, 5:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl – CFP Quarterfinal
• Wednesday, January 1, 8:45 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl – CFP Semifinal
• Thursday, January 9, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic – CFP Semifinal
• Friday, January 10, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T
• Monday, January 20, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Other Bowl Games
Cricket party bowl
• Saturday, December 14, 12pm ET. Watch ABC
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl
• South Alabama vs. Western Michigan, Saturday, December 14, 9:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl
• Memphis vs. West Virginia, Tuesday, December 17, 9:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Boca Raton Bowl
• Wednesday, December 18, 5:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
LA Come
• Wednesday, December 18, 9:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
• Thursday, December 19, 7:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN2
StaffDNA Cure bowl
• Friday, December 20, 12pm ET. Watch on ESPN
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Kom
• Friday, December 20, 3:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Myrtle Beach Bowl
• Monday, December 23, 11 a.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Famous Idaho potato bowl
• Monday, December 23, 2:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Hawaii Bowl
• South Florida vs. San Jose State, Tuesday, December 24, 8:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
GameAbove sports bowl
• Thursday, December 26, 2:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Rate bowl
• Thursday, December 26, 5:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
68 Ventures bowl
• Thursday, December 26, 9:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Birmingham bowl
• Friday, December 27, 12 or 3:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
• Friday, December 27, 12 or 3:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
• Friday, December 27, 7:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
DirecTV Holiday Bowl
• Friday, December 27, 8:00 PM ET. Look at Fox
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl
• Friday, December 27, 10:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Wasabi Fenway Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 11 a.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 12pm ET. Watch ABC
Isleta New Mexico Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 2:15 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Pop-Tarts bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 3:30 PM ET. Watch ABC
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 4:30 PM ET. Watch on CW Network
Go bowling Military Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 5:45 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Valero Alamo bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 7:30 PM ET. Watch ABC
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl
• Saturday, December 28, 9:15 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
TransPerfect Music City Bowl
• Monday, December 30, 2:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
ReliaQuest bowl
• Tuesday, December 31, 12:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
• Tuesday, December 31, 2:00 PM ET. Watch CBS
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl
• Tuesday, December 31, 3:00 PM ET. Watch ABC
Texas Bowl
• Tuesday, December 31, 3:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
• Thursday, January 2, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
SERVPRO First Responder bowl
• Friday, January 3, 4:00 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Duke’s Mayo Bowl
• Friday, January 3, 7:30 PM ET. Watch on ESPN
Bahamas Bowl
• Buffalo vs. Liberty, Friday, January 4, 11am ET. Watch on ESPN2
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