CFP Era Redefines Bowl Season: Tradition Meets Transformation

While the fallout from the much-debated reveal of the first 12-team College Football Playoff continues, a new era for the sport’s traditional postseason bowl games is set to begin.

For the first time, the New Year’s Six bowl games—the most well-known contests each year—will all be part of the CFP. 

After first-round games are played on campuses, the four quarterfinal matchups will play out at the Fiesta, Peach, Rose, and Sugar bowls. The winners of those games will then square off in the semifinals at the Orange and Cotton bowls. In future years, which bowl games host quarterfinal matchups and which ones host semifinals will rotate.

While that’s great for those historic bowl games, what does the new move mean for the others? Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli, whose organization oversees the scheduling of bowl games, previously told Front Office Sports that he would like to see all CFP matchups played at neutral-site bowl games—including first-round games.

After the CFP bracket was announced Sunday, so were matchups for the other 36 non-Playoff bowl games to be played out during December and early January.

Winning Mentality

In addition to the CFP, Disney’s networks annually broadcast the majority of bowl games. This year, they’ll benefit from two matchups in particular that include teams with something left to prove on the field.  

The Reliaquest Bowl in Tampa on Dec. 31 will pit Alabama (9–3), the first team left out of the CFP, against Michigan (7–5) on ESPN. The Crimson Tide were at the center of debate after SMU (11–2) made things complicated by losing the ACC championship, giving Clemson (10–3) an automatic Playoff berth. Alabama’s exclusion gave the Big Ten a 4–3 edge over the SEC as the conference with the most CFP bids.

On Dec. 28, ABC will broadcast Deion Sanders’s first bowl game as a head coach when Colorado (9–3) takes on Big 12 rival BYU (10–2) in the Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. The Buffaloes narrowly missed out on a Hollywood-esque, and potentially extremely lucrative, run to the CFP.

What’s in a Name?

Not every bowl features as intriguing matchups on the field, but for some games, the title sponsors end up being the stars of the show, anyway.

In 2023, snack brands were the big winners as over-the-top efforts generated tens of millions of dollars in marketing for bowl game sponsors.

This year, several of those wacky sponsors are back for more:

• Pop-Tarts Bowl, Dec. 28: Iowa State (10–3) vs. Miami (10–2)
• Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, Dec. 31: South Carolina (9–3) vs. Illinois (9–3)
• Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Jan. 3: Minnesota (7–5) vs. Virginia Tech (6–6)

Other bowl game names drawing attention include the Art of Sport LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk, the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl, and the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl, among others.