Mobile version. Acronyms are explained below. All times Eastern and PM, except where obvious. As of 12/09/2024 12:26:55 PM -0800.

Bowls When Where Time TV Teams Predictions
Veterans Bowl Dec. 14 Montgomery, AL 9:00 ESPN MAC/CUSA Sun Belt #1-5/CUSA Western Michigan* South Alabama*
Frisco Bowl Dec. 17 Frisco, TX 9:00 ESPN AAC/MWC/MAC/CUSA AAC/MWC/MAC/CUSA Memphis* West Virginia*
Boca Raton Bowl Dec. 18 Boca Raton, FL 5:30 ESPN AAC/MWC/CUSA AAC/MAC/CUSA Western Kentucky** James Madison*
LA Bowl Dec. 18 Inglewood, CA 9:00 ESPN Pac-12 #5 MWC #1 California** Nevada-Las Vegas**
New Orleans Bowl Dec. 19 New Orleans, LA 7:00 ESPN2 Sun Belt #1-5 CUSA #1/2/3 Georgia Southern* Sam Houston State**
Cure Bowl Dec. 20 Orlando, FL Noon ESPN AAC/MAC/Sun Belt #1-5/CUSA AAC/MAC/Sun Belt #1-5/CUSA Ohio* Jacksonville State**
Gasparilla Bowl Dec. 20 Tampa, FL 3:30 ESPN2 SEC #8/9/ACC/AAC/CUSA SEC #8/9/AAC/CUSA Tulane* Florida**
CFP First Round Dec. 20 South Bend, IN 8:00 ABC CFP CFP Notre Dame* (#7) Indiana* (#10)
CFP First Round Dec. 21 State College, PA Noon TNT CFP CFP Pennsylvania State* (#6) Southern Methodist* (#11)
CFP First Round Dec. 21 Austin, TX 4:00 TNT CFP CFP Texas** (#5) Clemson** (#12)
CFP First Round Dec. 21 Columbus, OH 8:00 ABC CFP CFP Ohio State* (#8) Tennessee** (#9)
Myrtle Beach Bowl Dec. 23 Conway, SC 11:00 ESPN AAC/MWC/Sun Belt #1-5/CUSA AAC/MAC/Sun Belt #1-5/CUSA Texas-San Antonio* Coastal Carolina**
Potato Bowl Dec. 23 Boise, ID 2:30 ESPN MWC/Sun Belt MAC #1/2/3/4 Fresno State* Northern Illinois*
Hawaii Bowl Dec. 24 Honolulu, HI 8:00 ESPN MWC CUSA San Jose State* South Florida*
Sports Bowl Dec. 26 Detroit, MI 2:00 ESPN Big Ten/AAC MAC #1/2/3/4 Pittsburgh* Toledo**
Guaranteed Rate Bowl Dec. 26 Phoenix, AZ 5:30 ESPN Big Ten/MWC #2 Big 12 #5/MWC #2 Rutgers** Kansas State*
68 Ventures Bowl Dec. 26 Mobile, AL 9:00 ESPN MAC Sun Belt #1-5 Arkasnas State* Bowling Green*
Armed Forces Bowl Dec. 27 Fort Worth, TX Noon ESPN Big 12 #6/MWC/CUSA AAC #1/2/3/4/CUSA Navy** Oklahoma*
Birmingham Bowl Dec. 27 Birmingham, AL 3:30 ESPN AAC/ACC/CUSA SEC #8/9/AAC/CUSA Georgia Tech** Vanderbilt*
Liberty Bowl Dec. 27 Memphis, TN 7:00 ESPN Big 12 #4 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Texas Tech* Arkansas*
Holiday Bowl Dec. 27 San Diego, CA 8:00 FOX ACC Pac-12 #3 Syracuse* Washington State*
Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 27 Las Vegas, NV 10:30 ESPN Pac-12 #2 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Southern California* Texas A&M*
Fenway Bowl Dec. 28 Boston, MA 11:00 ESPN ACC/CUSA AAC #1/2/3/4 North Carolina* Connecticut**
Pinstripe Bowl Dec. 28 New York, NY Noon ABC ACC Big Ten Boston College* Nebraska**
New Mexico Bowl Dec. 28 Albuquerque, NM 2:15 ESPN AAC/MAC/CUSA MWC/MAC/CUSA Texas Christian* Louisiana*
Pop-Tarts Bowl Dec. 28 Orlando, FL 3:30 ABC ACC #1 Big 12 #2 Miami** Iowa State**
Arizona Bowl Dec. 28 Tuscon, AZ 4:30 CW MWC #3 MAC #1/2/3/4 Colorado State** Miami*
Military Bowl Dec. 28 Annapolis, MD 5:45 ESPN ACC AAC #1/2/3/4 North Carolina State* East Carolina*
Alamo Bowl Dec. 28 San Antonio, TX 7:30 ABC Big 12 #1 Pac-12 #1 Brigham Young** Colorado**
Independence Bowl Dec. 28 Shreveport, LA 9:15 ESPN AAC #1/2/3/4/Sun Belt Pac-12 #6/Sun Belt Army** Marshall**
Music City Bowl Dec. 30 Nashville, TN 2:30 ESPN Big Ten SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Iowa** Missouri*
ReliaQuest Bowl Dec. 31 Tampa, FL Noon ESPN Big Ten SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Michigan* Alabama**
Sun Bowl Dec. 31 El Paso, TX 2:00 CBS ACC Pac-12 #4 Louisville* Washington**
Citrus Bowl Dec. 31 Orlando, FL 3:00 ABC Big Ten #1 SEC #1 Illinois** South Carolina*
Texas Bowl Dec. 31 Houston, TX 3:30 ESPN Big 12 #3 SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Baylor** Louisiana State**
Fiesta Bowl Dec. 31 Glendale, AZ 7:30 ESPN CFP (Big 12/MWC) CFP (First Round Winner) Boise State** (#3) PSU/SMU
Peach Bowl Jan. 1 Atlanta, GA 1:00 ESPN CFP CFP (First Round Winner) Arizona State** (#4) Texas/Clemson
Rose Bowl Jan. 1 Pasadena, CA 5:00 ESPN CFP (Big Ten) CFP (First Round Winner) Oregon** (#1) OSU/Tenn
Sugar Bowl Jan. 1 New Orleans, LA 8:45 ESPN CFP (SEC) CFP (First Round Winner) Georgia** (#2) ND/Indiana
Gator Bowl Jan. 2 Jacksonville, FL 7:30 ESPN ACC SEC #2/3/4/5/6/7 Duke* Mississippi**
First Responder Bowl Jan. 3 Dallas, TX 4:00 ESPN Big 12 #6/AAC/MWC/CUSA AAC/MWC/CUSA North Texas* Texas State*
Mayo Bowl Jan. 3 Charlotte, NC 7:30 ESPN ACC Big Ten Virginia Tech* Minnesota**
Bahamas Bowl Jan. 4 Nassau, Bahamas 11:00 ESPN MAC #1/2/3/4 CUSA #1/2/3 Buffalo* Liberty*
Orange Bowl Jan. 9 Miami Gardens, FL 7:30 ESPN CFP (Quater-final Winner) CFP (Quater-final Winner) Georgia/ND/Indiana Boise/PSU/SMU
Cotton Bowl Jan. 10 Arlington, TX 7:30 ESPN CFP (Quater-final Winner) CFP (Quater-final Winner) Oregon/OSU/Tenn ASU/Texas/Clemson
CFP Championship Game Jan. 20 Atlanta, GA 7:30 ESPN Orange Bowl Winner Cotton Bowl Winner    

Teams 6-6 or better that need at-large bids:

Overall:
Scores:

?=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.
Note the numbers next to the playoff reflect each team's seed and not its ranking. See below for more details on seeding.

Old predictions
Past years: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 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 17 13 13
Big Ten 18 12 12
Big 12 16 9 9
Pac-12 2 1 1
SEC 16 13 13
AAC 14 8 8
CUSA 10 4 4
MAC 12 7 7
MWC 12 5 5
Sun Belt 14 8 8
Indepedents 3 2 2
Totals 134 82 82

Above table reflects all teams that are currently bowl eligible as of when this page was last updated. There are 35 non-playoff bowls, so 70 are needed to fill those bowls. Including the playoff, 82 eligible teams are needed. This season, only Kennesaw State is not eligible.

As of the 2024 season, the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams. The Comittee will continue to rank the teams. The field will consist of the five highest ranked conference champions and then the next seven highest ranked teams. The four highest ranked conference champions are given byes to the quarterfinals. In the first round, the higher seed will host the lower seed either at home or at a designated alternate location.

The six playoff bowls (Peach, Cotton, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, and Orange) will now rotate being quaterfinal and semifinal sites. For the 2024 season, the Orange and Cotton Bowls will host semifinals, rotating to the Fiesta and Peach in 2025. When the Sugar and Rose are quarterfinals, the SEC and Big Ten champions will appear in those games if they are in the top four.

 Future championship game sites:
2024: Atlanta, GA
2025: Miami Gardens, FL

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

Overall eligibility: In the 2022-2023 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. 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. Note that these criteria apply in order, and a particular bowl game may use a team from this "pool" once every four years.
1. The "counting 1 FCS win" rule only applies if the FCS team in question uses 80% 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 6-7.
3. Teams that are in their final year of reclassifying to FBS and have a 6-6 record or better. (James Madison this year.)
4. From here, teams in order of their multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR).

A new cycle began in 2020, which was of course immediately disrupted. Many of these changes are described here, and others are pieced together from various other sources.

The 2020-2025 ACC bowl agreements were announced in 2020 and pretty much abandon any sort of ranking criteria completely. It's worth noting that in practice there seem to be three tiers of games, not two, with the Gator, Holiday, and Pop-Tarts Bowls making up the first tier. It also appears that Notre Dame may not be able to jump ACC teams with better or equal records.
The Big Ten selection process has its own page.
The Big 12 selection order. Extra non-former-Pac-12 Big 12 teams can also appear in ESPN Events bowl games.
For present and former Pac-12 teams, any team not appearing in the playoff will still appear in a bowl that was aligned with the Pac-12.
The SEC bowl selection order. Note that of the "pool of six", the Liberty is the first off if there's not enough teams.
The American bowl lineup. The American has four guarunteed slots for 2024 (Armed Forces, Independence, Military, and Fenway), plus 4 spots in the Birmingham, Cure, Gasparilla, Boca Raton, Frisco, First Responder, New Mexico, or Myrtle Beach Bowls. "AAC #1/2/3/4" is used on the table above to indicate that those bowls will take AAC teams, but not neccessarily over any of other bowls. This season, the AAC also has backup agreements with the Liberty and Sports Bowls.
The Mountain West selection process is here. Their notes mention that for any ESPN Events bowls they're not otherwise contracted with, it will "likely be held in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex". This implies the Armed Forces, First Responder, and Frisco Bowls.
I haven't been able to find an official source for the MAC. For now, I am using this.
The Sun Belt bowl notes are here. They are guarunteed five spots, and can back up any ESPN Events bowl or the Independence Bowl.
The Conference USA bowl agreements are here.

ESPN owns and operates the following bowls: Armed Forces Bowl, Bahamas Bowl, Birmingham Bowl, Boca Raton Bowl, Camellia Bowl, Cure Bowl, Fenway Bowl, First Responder Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Gasparilla Bowl, Hawaii Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Myrtle Beach Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, Potato Bowl, and the Texas Bowl. Occasionally swaps occur for random reasons usually involving these games.

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