College football has been wildly upended over the last few years by conference realignment, NIL and players transfers. Despite the changes, one of its oldest traditions endures: bowl games. These end-of-year games date back to 1902 when Michigan beat Stanford 49-0 in the Rose Bowl, which was originally dubbed Tournament East-West football game.
The college football bowl game schedule looks a bit different this year as the College Football Playoff has expanded from four teams to 12 teams. The expanded playoff was supposed to remove much of the consternation over which teams made the cut, but grumbling from Miami, Ole Miss and others shows that is not the case. More teams didnt diminish the regular season intrigue as predicted by some, with weekly upsets upending projections on the final 12, home field advantage and securing a bye.
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Per usual, TV money is driving the train in the changes. ESPN owned the rights to the CFP in a deal that runs through the 2025-26 season worth $470 million a year. In March, ESPN reached a new six-year, $7.8 billion agreement that runs through 2031-32 to be the rightsholder of the playoffs. This agreement further solidifies ESPN as the home of college football, Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chairman, said in a statement when the deal as announced.
Two months later, ESPN reached a five-year deal to sublicense some playoff games to TNT, who will host a pair of first-round CFP games during the next two seasons, whereupon the cable channel will add two quarterfinals in each of the three subsequent years.
Under the new CFP arrangement, Big Ten and SEC schools are set to each receive roughly $21 million annually, while ACC programs get approximately $13 million and Big 12 members $12 million. Notre Dame, which is independent, is expected to receive about $12 million as well. Group of Five schools will split 9% of the earnings, which works out to slightly less than $2 million per institution.
Here is what you need to know about the bowl game and playoff schedule for the 2024-25 college football season.
There are 36 games outside of the College Football Playoff, plus the 11 playoff games that will determine the national champion. The six traditional New Years Day bowl games, including the Rose, Orange and Fiesta, will be the quarterfinal and semifinal games of the playoff.
The bowl schedule kicks off with the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 14 and wraps up with the National Championship game on Jan. 20, nearly two weeks after last years title game. Big-name brands Allstate, AT&T, Capital One and Goodyear are sponsoring games once again, as are a few less-known names, such as Scooters Coffee, StaffDNA, SRS Distribution and 68 Ventures. Even Snoop Dogg has his own bowl game this year with the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl.
Most of the matchups will be revealed on Sunday, Dec. 8 over the course of the day on ESPN. The conference title games on Saturday will set the pecking order for the games and playoff. Disneys ESPN and ABC networks will be the home to almost all of the bowl games, while Fox, CBS and The CW will each broadcast a single game. In May, TNT reached a five-year deal to sublicense some playoff games from ESPN. TNT will host a pair of first-round CFP games this year.
The committee is made up of 13 members whose job is to rank the top 25 teams, assign the top 12 to the playoff bracket and assign the bowl sites. Per the CFP guidelines, the rankings are based on members evaluation of the teams performance on the field, using conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head results, and comparison of results against common opponents. The playoff format for this season will feature five automatic qualifiers from the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids.
Below is the complete 2024-25 bowl game schedule with TV listings.
CFP first-round game
Friday, Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC/ESPN
CFP first-round game
Saturday, Dec. 21, 12 p.m. ET. Watch on TNT
CFP first-round game
Saturday, Dec. 21, 4 p.m. ET. Watch on TNT
CFP first-round game
Saturday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC/ESPN
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl CFP Quarterfinal
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl CFP Quarterfinal
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Rose Bowl Presented by Prudential CFP Quarterfinal
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 5 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl CFP Quarterfinal
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl CFP Semifinal
Thursday, Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic CFP Semifinal
Friday, Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T
Monday, Jan. 20, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Cricket Celebration Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 14, 12 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl
South Alabama vs. Western Michigan, Saturday, Dec. 14, 9 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Scooters Coffee Frisco Bowl
Memphis vs. West Virginia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 9 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Boca Raton Bowl
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 5:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
LA Bowl
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 9 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 19, 7 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN2
StaffDNA Cure Bowl
Friday, Dec. 20, 12 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl
Friday, Dec. 20, 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Myrtle Beach Bowl
Monday, Dec. 23, 11 a.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Monday, Dec. 23, 2:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Hawaii Bowl
South Florida vs. San Jose State, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 8 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
GameAbove Sports Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 26, 2 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Rate Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 26, 5:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
68 Ventures Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 26, 9 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Birmingham Bowl
Friday, Dec. 27, 12 or 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Friday, Dec. 27, 12 or 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Friday, Dec. 27, 7 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
DirecTV Holiday Bowl
Friday, Dec. 27, 8 p.m. ET. Watch on Fox
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl
Friday, Dec. 27, 10:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Wasabi Fenway Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 11 a.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 12 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC
Isleta New Mexico Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 2:15 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Pop-Tarts Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 4:30 p.m. ET. Watch on CW Network
Go Bowling Military Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 5:45 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Valero Alamo Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28, 9:15 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
TransPerfect Music City Bowl
Monday, Dec. 30, 2:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
ReliaQuest Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 12 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2 p.m. ET. Watch on CBS
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 3 p.m. ET. Watch on ABC
Texas Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
Thursday, Jan. 2, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
Friday, Jan. 3, 4 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Dukes Mayo Bowl
Friday, Jan. 3, 7:30 p.m. ET. Watch on ESPN
Bahamas Bowl
Buffalo vs. Liberty, Friday, Jan. 4, 11 a.m. ET. Watch on ESPN2
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