Mobile version. Acronyms are explained below. All times Eastern and PM, except where obvious. As of 07/23/2018 02:20:16 AM -0700.

Bowls When Where Time TV Teams Predictions
New Orleans Bowl Dec. 16 New Orleans, LA 1:00 ESPN C-USA Sun Belt #1 North Texas* 20 Troy** 35
Cure Bowl Dec. 16 Orlando, FL 2:30 CBSS AAC #7 Sun Belt #4 Western Kentucky* 24 Georgia State** 14
Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 16 Las Vegas, NV 3:30 ABC Pac-12 #5 MWC #1 Oregon** 34 Boise State** 31
New Mexico Bowl Dec. 16 Albuquerque, NM 4:30 ESPN MWC #2/3/4 C-USA Colorado State* 21 Marshall* 17
Camellia Bowl Dec. 16 Montgomery, AL 8:00 ESPN MAC #1/2/3/4 Sun Belt #3 Middle Tennessee State* 24 Arkansas State** 31
Boca Raton Bowl Dec. 19 Boca Raton, FL 7:00 ESPN AAC #6 C-USA/MAC Akron* 17 Florida Atlantic* 42
Frisco Bowl Dec. 20 Frisco, TX 8:00  ESPN AAC #1/2/3/4/5 At-large/MAC Southern Methodist** 42 Louisiana Tech* 31
Gasparilla Bowl Dec. 21 St. Petersburg, FL 8:00 ESPN C-USA/ACC #9 AAC #1/2/3/4/5 Florida International** 32 Temple* 35
Bahamas Bowl Dec. 22 Nassau, Bahamas 12:30 ESPN MAC #1/2/3/4 C-USA Ohio* 42 Alabama-Birmingham* 49
Potato Bowl Dec. 22 Boise, ID 4:00 ESPN MWC #2/3/4 MAC #1/2/3/4 Wyoming** 24 Cental Michigan* 35
Birmingham Bowl Dec. 23 Birmingham, AL 12:00 ESPN SEC #8/ACC #10 AAC #1/2/3/4/5/ACC #10 Texas Tech* 45 South Florida* 56
Armed Forces Bowl Dec. 23 Fort Worth, TX 3:30 ESPN C-USA Army San Diego State* 24 Army** 21
Dollar General Bowl Dec. 23 Mobile, AL 7:00 ESPN MAC #1/2/3/4 Sun Belt #2 Toledo** 32 Appalachian State** 24
Hawaii Bowl Dec. 24 Honolulu, HI 8:30 ESPN MWC #2/3/4 AAC #1/2/3/4/5 Fresno State* 21 Houston** 17
Heart of Dallas Bowl Dec. 26 Dallas, TX 1:30 ESPN Big 12 #6 C-USA West Virginia* 27 Utah* 21
Quick Lane Bowl Dec. 26 Detroit, MI 5:15 ESPN Big Ten/MAC ACC #8/MAC Northern Illinois* 14 Duke** 24
Cactus Bowl Dec. 26 Phoenix, AZ 9:00 ESPN Big 12 #5/MWC Pac-12 #6/MWC Kansas State* 24 California-Los Angeles** 14
Independence Bowl Dec. 27 Shreveport, LA 1:30 ESPN ACC #7/C-USA SEC #9/C-USA Florida State** 21 Southern Mississippi** 34
Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 27 New York, NY 5:15 ESPN ACC #2/3/4/5 Big Ten Boston College** 31 Iowa** 15
Foster Farms Bowl Dec. 27 Santa Clara, CA 8:30 FOX Big Ten/MWC Pac-12 #3/MWC Purdue** 35 Arizona** 42
Texas Bowl Dec. 27 Houston, TX 9:00 ESPN Big 12 #3 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Texas** 24 Missouri** 35
Military Bowl Dec. 28 Annapolis, MD 1:30 ESPN ACC #6 AAC #1/2/3/4/5 Virginia** 24 Navy** 31
Camping World Bowl Dec. 28 Orlando, FL 5:15 ESPN ACC #1 Big 12 #2 Virginia Tech* 31 Oklahoma State** 42
Alamo Bowl Dec. 28 San Antonio, TX 9:00 ESPN Big 12 #1 Pac-12 #1 Texas Christian** 28 Stanford** 13
Holiday Bowl Dec. 28 San Diego, CA 9:00 FS1 Big Ten Pac-12 #2 Michigan State* 16 Washington State** 31
Belk Bowl Dec. 29 Charlotte, NC 1:00 ESPN ACC #2/3/4/5 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Wake Forest** 21 Texas A&M** 28
Sun Bowl Dec. 29 El Paso, TX 3:00 CBS ACC #2/3/4/5 Pac-12 #4 North Carolina State* 42 Arizona State** 28
Music City Bowl Dec. 29 Nashville, TN 4:30 ESPN ACC #2/3/4/5/Big Ten SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Northwestern** 23 Kentucky* 10
Arizona Bowl Dec. 29 Tuscon, AZ 5:30 CBSS MWC #5 Sun Belt #5 Utah State* 35 New Mexico State** 17
Cotton Bowl Dec. 29 Arlington, TX 8:30 ESPN CFP (At-large) CFP (At-large) Southern California* 35 Ohio State* 45
Taxslayer Bowl Dec. 30 Jacksonville, FL Noon ESPN ACC #2/3/4/5/Big Ten SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Louisville* 44 Mississippi State* 31
Liberty Bowl Dec. 30 Memphis, TN 12:30 ABC Big 12 #4 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Iowa State** 38 Memphis* 35
Fiesta Bowl Dec. 30 Glendale, AZ 4:00 ESPN CFP (At-large) CFP (At-large) Washington* 17 Pennyslvania State* 23
Orange Bowl Dec. 30 Miami Gardens, FL 8:00 ESPN CFP (ACC) CFP (SEC/Big Ten/ND) Miami** 42 Wisconsin* 18
Outback Bowl Jan. 1 Tampa, FL Noon ESPN2 Big Ten SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Michigan** 21 South Carolina** 17
Peach Bowl Jan. 1 Atlanta, GA 12:30 ESPN CFP (At-large) CFP (At-large) Central Florida** 21 Auburn** 42
Citrus Bowl Jan. 1 Orlando, FL 1:00 ABC Big Ten #1/ACC SEC #1 Notre Dame** 21 Louisiana State** 28
Rose Bowl Jan. 1 Pasadena, CA 5:00 ESPN CFP Semi-final CFP Semi-final Oklahoma (#2)** 45 Georgia (#3)** 35
Sugar Bowl Jan. 1 New Orleans, LA 8:45 ESPN CFP Semi-final CFP Semi-final Clemson (#1)** 24 Alabama (#4)** 19
CFP Championship Game Jan. 8 Atlanta, GA 8:00 ESPN Rose Bowl Winner Sugar Bowl Winner Georgia (#3) 13 Alabama (#4) 24

Teams 6-6 or better that need at-large bids: Western Michigan (6-6), Buffalo (6-6), Texas-San Antonio (6-5)

Overall:  16-24 (40%)
Scores: 3-77 (3.75%)

?=at-large because some conference couldn't fill its bids
* = Accepted invitation
** = Predicted correctly
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
1: Team meets one of the exception criteria, see the blurb about bylaw 18.7.2 below.

Old predictions
Past years: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | Index

Conference  Teams Eligible Teams With Bids
ACC 14 10 10
Big Ten 14 8 8
Big 12 10 8 8
Pac-12 12 9 9
SEC 14 9 9
AAC 12 7 7
C-USA 14 10 9
MAC 12 7 5
MWC 12 6 6
Sun Belt 12 5 5
Indepedents 4 2 2
Totals 130 81 78

Above table reflects all teams that are currently bowl eligible as of when this page was last updated. 78 teams are needed to fill all available bids.

The introduction of the College Football Playoff in the 2014-2015 season changed a bunch of stuff. Below is a quick guide to the process and links to sources of information.

The College Football Playoff is a new system that includes a rotating set of six bowl games (the Chick-fil-A, Cotton, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange) plus a championship game. Each year, two of the games will host semi-final games, which will be seeded according to a committee. The winners of those games will meet in the championship game. The rotation of the games is as such for the semi-finals:
2014-2015, 2017-2018: Rose and Sugar Bowls
2015-2016, 2018-2019: Orange and Cotton Bowls
2016-2017, 2019-2020: Fiesta and Chick-fil-a Bowls
This will continue through the 2025-2026 season.

When those games aren't hosting national semi-finals, they will be the home for conference champions and other teams not selected for the semi-finals. The default matchups are:
Rose: Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1
Sugar: SEC #1 vs. Big 12 #1
Orange: Highest-ranked ACC vs. the highest-ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten, or Notre Dame
Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach: At-large selections or the "top team" from the Group of Five (which consists of the non-autobid conferences (the American, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, and Sun Belt). These bowls can also host the Big Ten or SEC champions if they are not in the playoff when the Rose or Sugar bowls are part of the playoff.

Other rules:
1. Notre Dame can only appear twice as an at-large
2. If the ACC faces a rematch in the Orange Bowl, then the Orange can select the highest ranked available opponent (according to the committee) and the spurned team is placed elsewhere in the framework.
3. If a conference's champion is selected for the play-off, then the next highest ranked team from that conference assumes the berth, except in the Big 12, where the conference runner-up gets it.

"ACC #1" means "the first ACC team after the CFP selection process", not "the ACC champion".

Overall eligibility: The 2016-2017 NCAA Division I Manual (warning, PDF) bylaw 18.7.2 governs Division I FBS football eligibility. The NCAA defines a "deserving team" as a team with an equal number of wins and losses, i.e, a record of 6-6 and better against FBS opponents. For the purposes of this record, a team is also allowed to count one FCS win as well. Note that it is no longer a requirement that all above .500 teams are selected before 6-6 teams. For 2013, the NCAA added what one might call the "UCLA and Georgia Tech" rule which basically boils down to: a) winning your conference title game makes you a "deserving team" and b) losing your title game does not affect your "deserving team" status.

In addition to deserving teams, bylaw 18.7.2 also spells out what will happen if there are not enough bowl eligible teams for the 40 bowl games. Note that these criteria apply in order, and a particular bowl game may use a team from this "pool" once every four years (effective 8/2012).
1. The "counting 1 FCS win" rule only applies if the FCS team in question uses 90% of available scholarships out of 63 (so 56.7 scholarships, as FCS allows partial scholarships), so the first criteria is that any FCS school counts for the 1-win.
2. Teams that finished 6-6 with two FCS wins. This year, this rule could potentially apply to North Carolina or Army.
3. Teams that finished 6-7 (this used to be the "UCLA rule" but conference championships can no longer make a team ineligible for a bowl).
5. Teams that are reclassifying to FBS and have a 6-6 record. There are no reclassifying teams this year.
6. Teams in the top 5 of the APR and with a 5-7 record. This year, those teams are Northwestern, Air Force, Michigan, Duke, and Vanderbilt.

The ACC bowl selection criteria are buried in the massive media guide (warning: huge PDF) on page 23. The ACC no longer has a "one-win rule" and instead is using a more SEC-style "general list of criteria to emphasize regionality and quality matchups". Notre Dame is eligible for all the ACC's bowls (including the Citrus), but must be within one win of the best available ACC team at the time.
The Big Ten selection process has its own page. The Capital One Bowl will pick an ACC team if the ACC faces a Big Ten team in the Orange Bowl (see below). See also the Big Ten bowl tracking page.
The Big 12 selection order.
The Pac-12 bowl selection order, on page 135.
The SEC bowl selection order. Note that of the "pool of six", there Liberty is the first off if there's not enough teams.
The American bowl lineup (that and the 2017 Media Guide, pg. 14). Teams will be placed "based on best fit for the Conference and its membership".
The Mountain West bowl lineup. Note that the MWC is a backup for the Cactus, but if used the Cactus gets to pick right after the Las Vegas Bowl. However, the Foster Farms backup slot is filled only after all the other MWC bowls are filled.
The MAC bowl lineup. This article from 2014 also talks about them a bit. The MAC is also a secondary for any ESPN owned and operated bowl games.
The Sun Belt's weekly press releases list their tie-ins in selection order, which is very nice of them.
The Conference USA bowl lineup.
As far as independents other than Notre Dame go: Army has a tie-in with the Armed Forces, BYU is a free agent, and I can't find any information about UMass.

Other notes:

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