Mobile version. Acronyms are explained below. All times Eastern and PM, except where obvious. As of 01/09/2012 11:49:42 PM -0800.

Bowls When Where Time TV Teams Predictions
New Mexico Bowl Dec. 17 Albuquerque, NM 2:00 ESPN Pac-12 #7 MWC #4 Temple* 41 Wyoming** 17
Potato Bowl Dec. 17 Boise, ID 5:30 ESPN WAC MAC #3 Utah State* 27 Ohio** 35
New Orleans Bowl Dec. 17 New Orleans, LA 9:00 ESPN C-USA #2/3/4/5/6 Sun Belt #1 San Diego State** 35 UL-Lafayette* 13
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl1 Dec. 20 St. Petersburg, FL 8:00 ESPN C-USA #2/3/4/5/6 Big East #6 Marshall** 14 FIU** 24
Poinsettia Bowl Dec. 21 San Diego, CA 8:00 ESPN WAC MWC #2 Louisiana Tech* 15 TCU** 31
Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 22 Las Vegas, NV 8:00 ESPN Pac-12 #5 MWC #1 Arizona State** 17 Boise State** 42
Hawaii Bowl Dec. 24 Honolulu, HI 8:00 ESPN C-USA #2/3/4/5/6 WAC Southern Mississippi* 31 Nevada** 21
Independence Bowl Dec. 26 Shreveport, LA 5:00 ESPN2 ACC #7 MWC #3 North Carolina* 31 Missouri* 41
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl Dec. 27 Detroit, MI 4:30 ESPN Big Ten #81 MAC #2 Purdue** 45 WMU** 42
Belk Bowl Dec. 27 Charlotte, NC 8:00 ESPN ACC #5 Big East #3 NC State** 24 Louisville** 21
Military Bowl Dec. 28 Washington, D.C. 4:30 ESPN ACC #8 Navy/Big 12 Toledo* 48 Air Force* 42
Holiday Bowl Dec. 28 San Diego, CA 9:00 ESPN Pac-12 #3 Big 12 #5 California** 10 Texas* 17
Champs Sports Bowl Dec. 29 Orlando, FL 5:30 ESPN Big East #2/ND5 ACC #3 Notre Dame** 24 Florida State** 14
Alamo Bowl Dec. 29 San Antonio, TX 9:00 ESPN Pac-12 #2 Big 12 #3 Washington** 31 Baylor** 48
Armed Forces Bowl Dec. 30 Dallas, TX 12:00 ESPN C-USA #2/3/4/5/6 BYU Tulsa* 35 BYU** 32
Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 30 New York, NY 3:30 ESPN Big 12 #7/ND3 Big East #4 Iowa State** 10 Rutgers** 17
Music City Bowl Dec. 30 Nashville, TN 6:40 ESPN SEC #7 ACC #6 Mississippi State* 21 Wake Forest* 17
Insight Bowl Dec. 30 Tempe, AZ 10:00 ESPN Big 12 #4 Big Ten #4 Oklahoma* 35 Iowa** 17
Car Care Bowl of Texas Dec. 31 Houston, TX 12:00 ESPN Big 12 #6 Big Ten #6 Texas A&M* 38 Northwestern* 42
Sun Bowl Dec. 31 El Paso, TX 2:00 CBS ACC #4 Pac-12 #4 Georgia Tech** 24 Utah** 17
Liberty Bowl4 Dec. 31 Memphis, TN 3:30 ABC C-USA #1/SEC #8/9 Big East #5 Vanderbilt** 10 Cincinnati** 21
Fight Hunger Bowl Dec. 31 San Francisco, CA 3:30 ESPN Pac-12 #6/ACC Army/ACC UCLA** 6 Illinois** 10
Chick-fil-a^ Bowl Dec. 31 Atlanta, GA 7:30 ESPN ACC #2 SEC #5 Virginia* 17 Auburn** 21
TicketCity Bowl2 Jan. 2 Dallas, TX 12:00 ESPNU C-USA #2/3/4/5/6 Big Ten #7 Houston** 35 Penn State* 21
Outback Bowl Jan. 2 Tampa, FL 1:00 ABC Big Ten #3 SEC #3/4 Michigan State** 24 Georgia** 17
Capital One Bowl Jan. 2 Orlando, FL 1:00 ESPN SEC #2 Big Ten #2 South Carolina* 10 Nebraska** 21
Gator Bowl Jan. 2 Jacksonville, FL 1:00 ESPN2 Big Ten #5 SEC #6 Ohio State** 17 Florida** 14
Rose Bowl Jan. 2 Pasadena, CA 5:00 ESPN BCS (Big Ten #1) BCS (Pac-12 #1) Wisconsin** 34 Oregon** 27
Fiesta Bowl Jan. 2 Glendale, AZ 8:30 ESPN BCS (Big 12 #1) BCS (At-large) Oklahoma State** 45 Stanford** 31
Sugar Bowl Jan. 3 New Orleans, LA 8:00 ESPN BCS (SEC #1) BCS (At-large) Michigan** 24 Virginia Tech** 14
Orange Bowl Jan. 4 Miami Gardens, FL 8:00 ESPN BCS (ACC #1) BCS (At-large) Clemson** 34 West Virginia** 31
Cotton Bowl Jan. 6 Arlington, TX 8:00 FOX Big 12 #2 SEC #3/4 Kansas State** 24 Arkansas* 35
BBVA Compass Bowl1 Jan. 7 Birmingham, AL 1:00 ESPN SEC #8/9/C-USA Big East #5 SMU** 28 Pittsburgh** 17
GoDaddy.com Bowl Jan. 8 Mobile, AL 9:00 ESPN Sun Belt #2 MAC #1 Arkansas State* 42 Northern Illinois** 48
BCS Championship Game Jan. 9 New Orleans, LA 9:00 ESPN BCS #1 BCS #2 LSU** 17 Alabama** 10

Teams 6-6 or better that need at-large bids: Western Kentucky (7-5), Ball State (6-6)

Overall: 24-11 (68.57%)
Scores: 6/70 (8.57%)

Old predictions
Past years: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999  | Index

BCS Selection Process for 2010-2014:
The order of selection for at-large bids is as follows: Fiesta, Sugar, Orange.
1. The top 2 teams go to the national title game and conference champs of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC go to their games.
2. The bowls that lose their automatic qualifiers get to replace them first. The bowl that would have the #1 team goes first if both teams lost their bowls. The first bowl may not take a team from the same conference as the #2 team without permission. In addition, the first year the Rose Bowl loses a team to the championship game and a non-BCS conference team qualifies, that team must go to the Rose.
3. The remaining bowls pick automatic qualifiers in this order: Fiesta, Sugar, and then Orange.
4. After the selections are made, the conferences (and Notre Dame) can adjust the pairings to take the following factors into account:
a) Whether the same team will be playing in the same bowl for two straight years
b) Whether the two teams played against each other in the regular season
c) Whether the two teams played each other in a bowl game last year
d) "Whether alternative pairings may have greater or lesser appeal to college football fans as measured by expected ticket sales for the bowls and by expected television interest, and the consequent financial impact on ESPN and the bowls."
The pairings cannot result in a situation that removes the Big Ten or Pac-12 champion from the Rose Bowl.

What is an automatic qualifier? Well, here are the criteria (in order):
1. You finish in the top two of the standings.
2. You are the champion of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, or Southeastern Conference.
3. You are a the champion of C-USA, the MAC, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt, or the WAC and you:
a) Are ranked in the top 12
b) Or are in the top 16 and ranked above a team that qualifies under rule 2.
No more than one team meeting these provisions may get an auto-berth and the highest ranked team gets it.
4. Notre Dame will qualify if they are ranked 8th or higher.
5. If the 3rd ranked team has not earned an automatic berth by this point and there are less than 10 qualifiers, then that team gets it as long as no team in its conference is in the national title game. This team must be from an auto-qualifier conference.
6. If the 4th ranked team has not earned a berth by this point and there are less than 10 qualifiers, then that team gets it as long as no team in its conference is in the national title game. This team must be from an auto-qualifier conference.

If there are fewer than 10 automatic qualifiers, then any team in the top 14 with at least 9 wins can be picked as an at-large team. No more than two teams from any conference can be selected. If no team in the top 14 qualifies, then the pool expands to the top 18 teams, and so on in blocks of 4 teams.
Source: http://www.bcsfootball.org/news/story?id=4819597

The ACC bowl selection criteria are buried in the massive media guide (warning: huge PDF) on page 16. Bowls select in the order given, and can take the team with the best available record or a team with one less conference win, with the exception of the Chick-fil-a Bowl, which can take a different team if it is ranked at least 5 spots higher in the final BCS standings.
The Big Ten bowl selection order is buried in their massive media guide on page 37.
The Pac-12 bowl selection order, on page 125.
The Mountain West media guide has their selection order on page 38/16.
The WAC bowl page. The WAC does not have a selection order per se, other than that Hawaii will almost certainly go to the Hawaii Bowl if they are eligible. Outside of that, the top two teams in the WAC are guaranteed selection.

Overall eligibility: The 2010-2011 NCAA Division I Manual (warning, PDF) bylaw 18.7.2 governs Division I-A football eligibility. The NCAA defines a "deserving team" as a team with an equal number of wins and loss, i.e, a record of 6-6 and better against DI-A opponents. For the purposes of this record, a team is also allowed to count one DI-AA win as well. A waiver may be granted for a conference champion with a record worse than 6-6. Note that it is no longer a requirement that all above .500 teams are selected before 6-6 teams.

1: Sun Belt to the rescue! For 2010-2013, the Sun Belt will be the first source of back up teams for the following bowls: St. Petersburg, BBVA Compass, and the Little Casear's Bowl. In addition, the MAC can act as a backup for the Birmingham Bowl.
2: Primary backup for either conference is the 7th pick from Conference USA. Secondary backup for either conference is a team from the MAC.
3: Notre Dame, but only as a backup, not as a primary selection
4: The Big East has some wacky agreement with the Liberty, Compass, and St. Petersburg Bowls. It seems like this year they will only send teams to the last two (at least that's what the other conferences involved seem to assume). Most other sites are interpreting this as something the Liberty will do if there aren't enough SEC teams, so I will roll with that for this year. (In fact, I can't find any mention of the Big East on the Liberty Bowl's site at all.) Update 12/4/2011: It looks like this will happen. This is the best reference I can find for it.
5: The Champs Sports Bowl can only take Notre Dame once during the current 4-year agreement (2010-2013). They did not use this option in 2010 so it is currently on the table.

?=at-large because some conference couldn't fill its bids
* = Accepted invitation
** = Predicted correctly
^ = It's still the Peach Bowl to me, but I finally felt I should change it
A team in bold indicates that I predicted the winner correctly
A team in italics means that team won the game, but was not who I picked
A bold score means that I actually managed to pick the score correctly|
A team that is underlined is the predicted winner

Schedule sources: CollegeFootballPoll, Matt Sarz, conference media guides (see above), and individual bowl websites.