2023-2024 Bowl Games

This year, a whole lot of people seem to be talking about the College Football playoffs. They are even fighting about it Congress and Presidential candidates are taking shots at each other over it.

None of this will make any sense to those who are not up on all this news, but that has always been the case in whatever I write about. My thought is that Florida State deserved to get in the Final Four over Alabama. Perhaps they would be hard pressed to win, after their star Quarterback was lost to injury late in the season, but the bottom line is that they were an undefeated Power Five Conference Champion and Alabama was not. Texas was not either. However,Texas beat Alabama early in the season by 10 points in Alabama. So, I have to agree with those who believe that Florida State got shafted. They did everything they needed to do in regards to going undefeated and should not be punished just because their best player got hurt. That fact alone already hurt their team enough. What if in some horrible scenario, a player on another team was paid off in order to deliberately hurt another team's best player in order to influence which teams make the Playoffs?

Next year though, there will be 12 playoff teams and these debates will be very changed. If it were up to me, it would be a 16 team field, including all the mid-major conference champions, with nobody getting a bye in the first round. I also think College Football will seem very weird next year. The PAC-12 will no longer exist and pretty much everything will be dominated by the Big 10 and the SEC. The Big 10 will stretch from coast to coast instead of being a Midwest-centered conference. It just does not seem right. If I were in charge, I would have four geographic conferences for the major teams.

In my own area, three out of the four "local" teams are going to Bowl games. The exception being Illinois who lost a close one to Northwestern in their rivalry contest and did not qualify for a spot, after having also blown several other games this season. When the season began, Northwestern was rocked by scandal and expected to be one of the worst teams in the country. However, they exceeded all expectations by having the year they did. Notre Dame looked like a potential Playoff team early on, but that did not last and they are going to a less-profile Bowl game. An even less profile Bowl game will be the destination for my alma-mater Northern Illinois. They looked like they were going to have no chance of reaching any sort of post-season opportunity not long ago, but when on a late winning streak and are lucky to be headed off to wherever they are going in Alabama. 

As always, the teams listed in bold are not predictions, but teams that I want to win. Besides for NIU and a few other games on this list, I do not really care all that much about which team wins. I just hope to see competitive entertaining games on television, when I can watch.

 

Thankfully, Harvard, Penn, and MIT will also not be taking part.

1. Myrtle Beach Bowl

Conway, SC

Georgia Southern Eagles vs. Ohio Bobcats

2. New Orleans Bowl

New Orleans, LA

Jacksonville State Gamecocks vs. Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

3. Cure Bowl

Orlando, FL

Miami RedHawks vs. Appalachian State Mountaineers

4. New Mexico Bowl

Albuquerque, NM

New Mexico State Aggies vs. California State, Fresno Bulldogs

5. LA Bowl

Inglewood, CA

California, Los Angeles Bruins vs. Boise State Broncos

6. Independence Bowl

Shreveport, LA

California, Berkeley Golden Bears vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders

7. Famous Toastery Bowl

Charlotte, NC

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers vs. Old Dominion Monarchs

8. Frisco Bowl

Frisco, TX

Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners vs. Marshall Thundering Herd

9. Boca Raton Bowl

Boca Raton, FL

South Florida Bulls vs. Syracuse Orange

10. Gasparilla Bowl

Tampa, FL

Georgia Institute of Technology Yellow Jackets vs. Central Florida Knights

11. Camellia Bowl

Montgomery, AL

Arkansas State Red Wolves vs. Northern Illinois Huskies

12. Birmingham Bowl

Birmingham, AL

Troy Trojans vs. Duke Blue Devils

13. Armed Forces Bowl

Fort Worth, TX

James Madison Dukes vs. United States Air Force Academy Falcons

14. Potato Bowl

Boise, ID

Georgia State Panthers vs. Utah State Aggies

15. 68 Ventures Bowl

Mobile, AL

South Alabama Jaguars vs. Eastern Michigan Eagles

16. Las Vegas Bowl

Paradise, NV

Utah Utes vs. Northwestern Wildcats

17. Hawai'i Bowl

Honolulu, HI

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers vs. San Jose State Spartans

18. Quick Lane Bowl 

Detroit, MI

Bowling Green State Falcons vs. Minnesota, Twin Cities Golden Gophers

19. First Responder Bowl
University Park, TX

Texas State Bobcats vs. William Marsh Rice Owls

20. Guaranteed Rate Bowl

Phoenix, AZ

Kansas Jayhawks vs. Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels

21. Military Bowl

Annapolis, MD

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Hokies vs. Tulane of Louisiana Green Wave

22. Mayo Bowl

Charlotte, NC

North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels vs. West Virginia Mountaineers

23. Holiday Bowl

San Diego, CA

#15 Louisville Cardinals vs. Southern California Trojans

24. Texas Bowl

Houston, TX

Texas A&M Aggies vs. #20 Oklahoma State Cowboys

25. Fenway Bowl

Boston, MA

#24 Southern Methodist Mustangs vs. Boston College Eagles

26. Pinstripe Bowl

Bronx, NY

Rutgers, State University of New Jersey Scarlet Knights vs. Miami Hurricanes

27. Pop-Tarts Bowl

Orlando, FL

#18 North Carolina State Wolfpack vs. #25 Kansas State Wildcats

28. Alamo Bowl

San Antonio. TX

#14 Arizona Wildcats vs. #12 Oklahoma Sooners

29. Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, FL

#22 Clemson Tigers vs. Kentucky Wildcats

30. Sun Bowl

El Paso, TX

#19 Oregon State Beavers vs. #16 Notre Dame du Lac Fighting Irish

31. Liberty Bowl

Memphis, TN

Memphis Tigers vs. Iowa State University of Science and Technology Cyclones

32. Cotton Bowl

Arlington, TX

#9 Missouri Tigers vs. #7 Ohio State Buckeyes

33. Peach Bowl

Atlanta, GA

#11 Mississippi Rebels vs. #10 Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions

34. Music City Bowl

Nashville, TN

Auburn Tigers vs. Maryland, College Park Terrapins

35. Orange Bowl

Miami Gardens, FL

#6 Georgia Bulldogs vs. #5 Florida State Seminoles

36. Arizona Bowl

Tucson, AZ

Toledo Rockets vs. Wyoming Cowboys

37. Reliaquest Bowl

Tampa, FL

Wisconsin-Madison Badgers vs. #13 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Tigers

38. Fiesta Bowl

Glendale, AZ

#23 Liberty Flames vs. #8 Oregon Ducks

39. Citrus Bowl

Orlando, FL

#17 Iowa Hawkeyes vs. #21 Tennessee, Knoxville Volunteers

40. Rose Bowl
Pasadena, CA

#4 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. #1 Michigan-Ann Arbor Wolverines

41. Sugar Bowl

New Orleans, LA

#3 Texas at Austin Longhorns vs. #2 Washington Huskies

42. National Championship

Houston, TX

Rose Bowl Winner vs. Sugar Bowl Winner

Washington over Michigan

Washington over Alabama

Texas over Alabama

Texas over Michigan