2024-2025 College Football Bowl Games- Part 1

I do this every year, but the changed college football landscape complicates this post in some ways, There is now a 12 team playoff, instead of one just four teams. At this point, I think they might as well make it 16 teams.

The 12 teams though leaves too many possibilities as to the matchups later on in the playoffs, so I am just going to divide this list up on different posts. I will do the next one after the "first round" of the playoffs. These games will be listed in chronological order. Additionally, the first Bowl Game (I am only going to count the Division 1 Bowl Games, so apologies to the fine folks in the Celebration Bowl) is this Saturday, which is also the same day as the annual Army-Navy game. So, I might as well throw that one in too. After all, this game between future soldiers and sailors will get a lot more attention than the "Salute to Veterans Bowl" later that evening, which I assume will air after the Heisman Trophy is awarded. At least they do not have to worry about OJ Simpson trying to show up in New York this year.

These are not predictions, but the teams highlighted in bold will simply be the teams I "want" to win. Frankly, I really do not care all that much. I would rather get the chance to view competitive games on television that go down to the final play. I will maybe toss a coin on a few of these. I used to largely root for the schools from the Red States, but in this upside down world of politics, I may now be holding that against those schools in those states. (I still plan this month to write several paragraphs about November's election results and offer some thoughts on the status of politics moving into 2025. After that, I will itemize all my predictions for other races and explain why I got the few races wrong that I did.)

Anyways, I do want my alma mater Northern Illinois to be victorious on the blue turf at the Potato Bowl. Coach Thomas Hammock deserves to have a giant bucket of french fries dumped on him. He may even eat a few. It was an amazing moment early this season when the Huskies went into the Notre Dame Stadium and shocked the highly ranked Irish. That briefly got NIU into the AP Top 25, but alas, they lost some winnable conference games and had to settle for a postseason trip to Boise. That is better than nothing though! On the other hand, Notre Dame has not lost since and are in the playoffs. I do hope that the somewhat local Notre Dame team does take the championship because it will be fun to consider that Northern Illinois would be the only team to beat them during that season.

 

I am using the official CFP rankings for the Top 25 and not the "seeding."

1. Army-Navy Game

Landover, MD

United States Naval Academy Midshipmen vs.# 22 United States Military Academy at West Point Black Knights

2. Salute to Veterans Bowl

Montgomery, AL

South Alabama Jaguars vs. Western Michigan Broncos

3. Frisco Bowl

Frisco, TX

#25 Memphis Tigers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers

4. Boca Raton Bowl

Boca Raton, FL

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers vs. James Madison Dukes

5. LA Bowl

Inglewood, CA

California, Berkeley Golden Bears vs. # 24 Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels

6. New Orleans Bowl

New Orleans, LA

Georgia Southern Eagles vs. Sam Houston State Bearkats

7. Cure Bowl

Orlando, FL

Jacksonville State Gamecocks vs. Ohio Bobcats

8. Gasparilla Bowl

Tampa, FL

Florida Gators vs. Tulane University of Louisiana Green Wave

9. First Round Game

Notre Dame, IN

# 8 Indiana Bloomington Hoosiers at # 5 Notre Dame du Lac Fighting Irish

10. First Round Game

University Park, PA

#10 Southern Methodist Mustangs at # 4 Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions

11. First Round Game

Austin, TX

# 16 Clemson Tigers at # 3 Texas at Austin Longhorns

12. First Round Game

Columbus, OH

# 7 Tennessee, Knoxville Volunteers vs # 6 Ohio State Buckeyes

13. Myrtle Beach Bowl

Conway, SC

Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners vs. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

14. Potato Bowl

Boise, ID

Northern Illinois Huskies vs. California State, Fresno Bulldogs

15. Hawai'i Bowl

Honolulu, HI

South Florida Bulls vs. San Jose State Spartans

 

16.  Sports Bowl

Detroit, MI

Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Toledo Rockets

17. Rate Bowl

Phoenix, AZ

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Scarlet Knights vs. Kansas State Wildcats

18. 68 Ventures Bowl,

Mobile, AL

Arkansas State Red Wolves vs. Bowling Green State Falcons

19. Armed Forces Bowl,
Fort Worth, TX

Oklahoma Sooners vs. United States Naval Academy Midshipmen

 

20.  Birmingham Bowl

Birmingham, AL

 

Georgia Institute of Technology Yellow Jackets vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

 

21.  Liberty Bowl

Memphis, TN

Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Arkansas Razorbacks

22. Holiday Bowl

San Diego, CA

Washington State Cougars vs. # 21 Syracuse Orange

23. Las Vegas Bowl
Paradise, NV

Southern California Trojans vs. Texas A&M Aggies

24. Fenway Bowl

Boston, MA

North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels vs. Connecticut Huskies

25. Pinstripe Bowl

New York, NY

Boston College Eagles vs. Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhuskers

26. New Mexico Bowl

Albuquerque, NM

Texas Christian Horned Frogs vs. Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns

27. Pop-Tarts Bowl

Orlando, FL

#18 Iowa State University of Science and Technology Cyclones vs. # 13 Miami Hurricanes

28. Arizona Bowl

Tuscon, AZ

Miami RedHawks vs. Colorado State Rams

29. Military Bowl

Annapolis, MD

North Carolina State Wolfpack vs. East Carolina Pirates

30. Alamo Bowl

San Antonio, TX

# 17 Brigham Young Cougars vs. # 23 Colorado Boulder Buffaloes

31. Independence Bowl

Shreveport, LA

# 22 United States Military Academy at West Point Black Knights vs. Marshall Thundering Herd Louisiana Tech Bulldogs

32. Music City Bowl

Nashville, TN

Iowa Hawkeyes vs. # 19 Missouri Tigers