Bowl eligibility in
college football
College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
at the
NCAA Division I FBS
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
level is the standard through which teams become available for selection to participate in postseason
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...
s. When a team achieves this state, it is described as "bowl-eligible".
For nearly a century, bowl games were the purview of only the very best teams, but a steady proliferation of new bowl games required 70 participating teams by the
2010–11 bowl season, then 80 participating teams by the
2015–16 bowl season. As a result, the NCAA has steadily watered down the criteria for bowl eligibility in favor of higher profits, allowing teams with a non-winning (6–6) record in 2010, further reducing to allow teams with outright losing records (5–7) to be invited by 2012. For the
2016–17 bowl season, 25% of the bowl participants (20 teams) did not have a winning record.
Current regulations have also adjusted the criteria to allow a team to include one win against teams at the lower
FCS level.
Teams that are bowl eligible will usually either play in one of the bowl games that its conference is affiliated with based on
conference tie-ins or the team will be chosen from the pool of remaining bowl eligible teams to fill one of the at-large positions. The various reductions in the bowl eligibility criteria are discussed below.
Current criteria
As of
2018–19 bowl season, a
Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
(FBS) team was required to meet the following criteria to participate in a bowl game:
#The team must have at least as many wins as overall losses. Wins against non-Division I teams do not count toward the number of wins.
#No more than one win against a
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...
(FCS) team may count toward that win total, and only if the FCS team has awarded at least 90% of the scholarships that FCS rules allowed it to award over the last two years.
(Currently, that means that wins against
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
,
Georgetown,
Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I Fo ...
, and some
Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
teams do not count.) The requirement that the FCS team must have awarded 90% of its allowed scholarships may be waived if a "unique or catastrophic situation" prevented the FCS team from meeting that requirement.
#A team that has a losing record only because it lost its conference championship game remains eligible for a bowl.
If there are not enough eligible teams to fill all the bowl slots, additional teams may be selected, according to the following priorities, which must be applied in descending order:
#Teams which would have met the eligibility criteria if not for the fact that they had one win against an FCS team that did not meet the scholarship requirement and no waiver was granted.
#Teams which played 13 games during the regular season and finished with a 6–7 record.
#Teams in their second year of reclassification from FCS to FBS football.
#Teams with at least 5 wins and no more than 7 losses, in order of their
Academic Progress Rate
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, to ...
s (APRs).
Exceptions
In mid-October 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the NCAA waived bowl eligibility requirements for the
2020–21 bowl season, intended "to allow as many student-athletes as possible the opportunity to participate in bowl games this year."
History
On April 26, 2006, the NCAA announced that they were relaxing the rules for eligibility starting with the
2006–07 bowl season, particularly in light of the new twelve-game college football season. Now, teams with a minimum non-losing, or .500, record can qualify for bowl games if their conference has a contract with a bowl game. Also, other teams with a minimum non-losing .500 record (i.e., 6–6) could earn bowl bids if all other FBS teams with winning records have been taken and postseason spots still remain vacant. In thirteen-game seasons (used because of conference championship games, or allowable for
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
and any of its home opponents in a given season), a team must win seven games.
Occasionally, there will be more bowl eligible teams than there are spots in the NCAA football bowl games in the season. In these cases, some bowl eligible teams will not be invited to play in any NCAA football bowl game (usually teams from
Group of Five conferences
In college football, the Group of Five (G5) are five athletic conferences whose members are part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdiv ...
). Typically, teams with seven or more wins will not be left out of bowl games, although there are times, most recently the
2012–13 bowl season, that see at least one such team uninvited. Before the
2010–11 bowl season, the Division I rulebook, specifically Bylaw 30.9.2.1, had several provisions that attempted to ensure that teams with seven wins will receive preference for bowl bids:
* Bowl games that have a contract with a conference must select a team with at least seven wins if one is available.
* Any bowl berths that become eligible when a conference fails to meet its contracted tie-ins must first be filled by any eligible seven-win teams before any remaining FBS 6–6 teams can be accommodated.
* Additionally, conferences are not allowed to sign contingency agreements with bowl games that would allow 6–6 teams from their conferences to receive bowl berths at the expense of any potential team with seven or more wins. While this does not prevent conferences from signing contingency agreements that are triggered when a second conference is unable to provide enough eligible teams to fill all of its contracted berths, it does not allow a 6–6 team from the contingency conference access to a bowl game over a seven win team from a third conference.
In the
2008–09 bowl season, these rules affected bowls contracted to the
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...
and
Pac-10
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...
, which each had at least one more bowl slot than eligible teams. The same applies to bowls contracted to the
SEC. However, in that season, the
WAC had a contingency agreement with one of the Pac-10's bowls, specifically the
Poinsettia Bowl
The Poinsettia Bowl was an annual college football bowl game held in San Diego, California, from 2005 to 2016. The game was originally played from 1952 to 1955 between military services teams; in 2005 it was re-created by the organizers of the ...
, providing that the bowl would select a WAC team (ultimately
Boise State
Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It ...
) if the Pac-10 did not have enough teams to fulfill their bowl contracts. The same contingency agreement applied in that season to the
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...
and the
PapaJohns.com,
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
, and
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
bowls. Similarly, these rules affected bowls contracted to the
ACC in the
2009–10 bowl season because that conference has nine bowl tie-ins, but only had seven eligible teams that season.
Starting with the
2011–12 bowl season, the rule that required the selection of seven-win teams before any 6–6 teams was eliminated. The first season of the new rule saw
Temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
go uninvited despite going 8–4, including a win over eventual
Big East
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
BCS representative
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
. In the 2010–11 bowl season, the
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...
were invited to a bowl game despite a losing record after playing a conference championship game (6–6 in regular season, played and lost the
Pac-12
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...
championship game in extenuating circumstances), while a 7–5 winning team (
Western Kentucky) and a 6–6 non-losing team (
Ball State) did not receive invites.
Like NCAA sports where a tournament determines an automatic conference bid to the postseason tournament, a team can finish with a losing record (or a winning record but not eligible because of FCS wins) and still appear in a bowl game. In another change to bowl eligibility rules that took effect in 2010–11, a team that wins its conference but has an overall losing record must receive an NCAA waiver to appear in a bowl game. Previously, the waiver required no NCAA action. The new rule is still largely consistent with the NCAA rules in all other team sports, where a team that has a losing record that wins their conference championship through the conference tournament earns the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The NCAA typically awarded waivers in extenuating circumstances when a 6–6 team played in a conference championship game as a result of the division winning team being ineligible because of sanctions. This prevents the conference championship game from affecting bowl eligibility of team that advances to the conference championship in case of division-winning teams being sanctioned. The Pac-12 and ACC have both used it for such division champions,
UCLA in 2011 and
Georgia Tech in 2012, both of which were 6–6 and advanced to the conference championship game as a result of sanctions to the division winning teams (
USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
in the
2011 Pac-12 South,
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
and
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
in the
2012 ACC Coastal). Both lost in their conference championship games, but the NCAA awarded both waivers. Starting with the
2013–14 bowl season, this waiver is established by rule and all 6–6 teams participating in a conference championship game will be bowl eligible.
2012 revised criteria
On August 2, 2012, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a significant change to the process to determine bowl eligible teams, going so far as to potentially allow 5–7 teams to go to a bowl, in case there were not enough regular bowl-eligible teams to fill every game.
If a bowl has one or more conferences/teams unable to meet their contractual commitments and there are no available bowl-eligible teams, the open spots can be filled – by the particular bowl's sponsoring agencies – as follows:
# Teams finishing 6–6 with one win against a team from the lower
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...
(FCS), regardless of whether that FCS school meets NCAA scholarship requirements. Until now, an FCS win counted only if that opponent met the scholarship requirements—specifically, that school had to award at least 90% of the FCS maximum of 63 scholarship equivalents over a two-year period. As of the 2021 season, programs in three FCS conferences cannot meet the 90% requirement (56.7 equivalents)—the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
, which prohibits all athletic scholarships; the
Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I Fo ...
, which does not currently award football scholarships; and the
Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
, which limits football scholarships to 45 equivalents. In addition,
Georgetown does not offer football scholarships despite playing in the
Patriot League
The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...
, a conference which has allowed football scholarships since 2013.
# 6–6 teams with two wins over FCS schools. (This provision was later removed in 2017.)
# Teams that finish 6–7 with loss number seven in their conference championship game. (These teams received automatic waivers starting in 2014.)
# 6–7 teams that normally play a 13-game schedule, such as
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
and their home opponents. The NCAA permits Hawaii and teams who play at Hawaii to play an additional game during the regular season to recoup their unusually high travel costs to and from the
mainland
Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or demogr ...
.
# FCS teams who are in the final year of the two-year FBS transition process, if they have at least a 6–6 record.
# Finally, 5–7 teams that have a top-five
Academic Progress Rate
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, to ...
(APR) score. This was later adjusted to allow other 5–7 teams to be selected thereafter—in order of their APR.
2015–20 bowl seasons
The
2015–16 bowl season featured a record 40 bowl games, and three teams with losing records (
San Jose State
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
, and
Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
; each 5–7). Despite this, the
Arizona Bowl was unable to fill teams via its
Conference USA
Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
Mem ...
or alternate Sun Belt Conference tie-ins, leading to both teams being from the
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
, marking the first time since the
1979 Orange Bowl that a non-championship bowl game was played between members of the same conference.
The
2016–17 bowl season again featured 40 bowl games, and three teams with losing records (6–7
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, 5–7
Mississippi State
Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...
, and 5–7
North Texas
North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
).
The
2017–18 bowl season featured 39 bowl games due to the discontinuation of the
Poinsettia Bowl
The Poinsettia Bowl was an annual college football bowl game held in San Diego, California, from 2005 to 2016. The game was originally played from 1952 to 1955 between military services teams; in 2005 it was re-created by the organizers of the ...
, with all bowl slots filled by teams with winning or .500 records;
UTSA at 6–5 did not receive a bowl bid, while 15 teams with 6–6 records were selected.
The
2018–19 bowl season again filled all slots for 39 bowl games with teams having winning or .500 records. One team with a winning record,
Southern Miss at 6–5, did not receive a bowl invitation, while there were 10 teams with 6–6 records selected.
2020–21 bowl season
The
2020–21 bowl season saw a record nine teams with losing records accept bowl bids, after
impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
* The
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
waived eligibility requirements "to allow as many student-athletes as possible the opportunity to participate in bowl games this year."
The
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...
still required teams to have a .500 record to be considered.
* Fourteen existing bowls were cancelled, either due to either travel restrictions (
Bahamas Bowl and
Hawaii Bowl
The Hawaii Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played in the Honolulu, Hawaii, area since 2002. The game was originally held at Aloha Stadium in Halawa, Hawaii, a suburb of Honolulu, before moving to the Clarence T. C. Ching At ...
), availability of teams (
Birmingham Bowl,
Frisco Bowl,
Guaranteed Rate Bowl,
Independence Bowl, and
Military Bowl), general pandemic effects (
Holiday Bowl
The Holiday Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in San Diego, California. Operating since 1978, its current conference tie-ins are with the Pac-12 Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The bowl is held at Snapdragon S ...
,
Las Vegas Bowl
The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada, before moving t ...
,
Pinstripe Bowl
The Pinstripe Bowl is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game held annually since 2010 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City. Through 2025 it is affiliated ...
,
Redbox Bowl,
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...
,
Gasparilla Bowl) or no formal reason (
Quick Lane Bowl).
* The
Fenway Bowl
The Fenway Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Organized by ESPN Events and Fenway Sports Management, it features teams from the American Athletic Conf ...
and
LA Bowl
The LA Bowl is an annual NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, first played in December 2021. The bowl has tie-ins with the Mountain West Conference, Mountain ...
postponed their debuts to the 2021–22 bowl season, with the
Montgomery Bowl
The 2020 Montgomery Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 23, 2020, at the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The game was broadcast on ESPN, with kickoff at 7:00 p.m. EST (6:00 p.m. local CST). It was the inaugur ...
announced as a "substitute of the Fenway Bowl for this season only".
* Eighteen teams with non-losing records opted out of bowl consideration in advance of the final College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings being released on December 20:
** ACC: 6–5
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
, 6–5
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
and 5–5
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
** SEC: 5–5
LSU
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...
, as part of a self-imposed one-year postseason ban due to NCAA rule violations
** PAC-12: 2–2
Arizona State Sun Devils
The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...
, 4–2
Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
, 5–1 South Division champion
USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
, 3–2
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, and 3–1 North Division champion
Washington
Washington most commonly refers to:
* George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States
* Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A ...
(also foregoing the
2020 Pac-12 Football Championship Game)
** MAC: six teams were opted out by the conference's reported decision to only allow top two teams to go to bowl games— 3–3
Central Michigan
Central Michigan, also called Mid Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, Lower Peninsula of the United States, U.S. state of Michigan. As its name implies, it is the middle area of the Lower Peninsula. Lower Michigan is said t ...
, 3–1
Kent State, 2–1
Miami (OH), 2–1
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, 4–2
Toledo and 4–2
Western Michigan
West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for a region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Generally, it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Peninsula's Lake ...
.
** Other "Group of Five" conferences: 5-2
Boise State
Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It ...
, 4–4
San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...
, 7–3
SMU (originally selected to play in the
Frisco Bowl)
2021–present bowl seasons
The
2021–22 bowl season featured 44 bowl games with everything largely back to normal after the turmoil of the previous season due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
were the only team with a losing record, 6–7, selected. They were paired against the 6–6
Memphis Tigers in the
2021 Hawaii Bowl, but ultimately withdrew due to COVID-19 concerns. 17 teams with a 6–6 record were invited and accepted into bowl games. In addition, after initial bowl selections had been made, 5–7
Rutgers
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...
replaced 8–4
Texas A&M
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
in the
December 2021 Gator Bowl after positive COVID-19 tests within the Texas A&M program. Rutgers became the only team with a losing record to play a bowl game that season, losing to
Wake Forest.
Bowl teams with losing records
The following teams within FBS (or its predecessors, such as
Division I-A and
University Division
The NCAA University Division was a historic subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) consisting of member schools competing at the highest level of college sports. The University Division was first established as a basis ...
) entered bowl games with losing records.
^ Hawaii, with a losing record of 2–5, also won the Poi Bowl for the 1936 season. The University of Hawaii website does not count that win as an official bowl victory as their competition consisted of local Honolulu All-Stars.
Denotes a team that had a 6–6 regular season record, then lost their conference's championship game before playing in a bowl game.
In addition to the 2020 teams listed,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
accepted an invitation to the
Liberty Bowl
The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic Cit ...
with a 3–7 record,
South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
accepted an invitation to the
Gasparilla Bowl with a 2–8 record, and
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
accepted a bid to the
Texas Bowl with a 3–7 record. Tennessee and South Carolina had to withdraw due to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
issues, and the Texas Bowl was cancelled after
Arkansas' opponent withdrew due to COVID-19 issues.
% In 2021, the Hawaii Bowl was canceled due to Hawaii's withdrawal, which was due to injuries and COVID-19 issues within the team.
& In 2021,
Texas A&M
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
(8–4) withdrew from the Gator Bowl due to an insufficient number of players being available.
The NCAA announced that Rutgers, having the highest
Academic Progress Rate
The Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a measure introduced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the nonprofit association that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, to ...
(APR) of five-win teams, was the first eligible replacement team—Rutgers accepted the bid.
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See also
* Automatic bids to college bowl games
The teams that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision earn the right to compete in a series of post-season games called bowl games. As of 2024, there are 42 bowl games (not counting the ...
References
External links
NCAA 2008–09 Postseason Football Handbook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowl Eligibility
College football bowls