2025–26 NCAA football bowl games

The 2025–26 NCAA football bowl games were an ongoing series of college football bowl games in the United States, most of which were played to complete the 2025 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Team-competitive bowl games in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) began on December 13, 2025, and concluded with the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship on January 19, 2026. Several all-star games followed.

The College Football Playoff system was used to determine a national champion of Division I FBS college football. This was the 12th year of the College Football Playoff era, and the second year using an expanded, 12-team format.

A committee of experts ranked the top 25 FBS teams after each of the final six weeks of the regular season. Upon release of the final rankings, the top five ranked conference champions were selected to compete in the playoff, along with the seven highest ranked remaining teams. The top four ranked teams received a first-round bye.^[1]

The first round of games were played at campus sites on December 19 and 20, 2025. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were played at the New Year's Six bowl games. The quarterfinal games were played on December 31, 2025, and January 1, 2026, at the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. The semifinal games were played on January 8 and 9, 2026, at the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl. The winners advanced to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship, played on January 19, 2026, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.^[2][3]

All times are EST (UTC−5).

The 2025–26 bowl game lineup had one change from the previous season: the Bahamas Bowl was replaced with the Xbox Bowl.^[4] The Frisco Bowl was temporarily relocated to the Ford Center at The Star to accommodate renovations at Toyota Stadium.^[5]

Bowl games that were not part of the College Football Playoff are listed below.^[6][7][8][9] Final CFP rankings, issued before these games were played, are listed where applicable.

The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) had one bowl game, the Celebration Bowl. Played between HBCUs, it served as a de facto Black college football national championship. The FCS also had a postseason bracket tournament that culminated in the 2026 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game, won by Montana State.^[10]

The Tropical Bowl was canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances" outside of the control of the organizers.^[11] The FCS Bowl was postponed indefinitely for similar reasons.^[12] The American Bowl was added to the all-star slate.^[13][14]

The HBCU Legacy Bowl features players from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). Most HBCU football programs compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) or the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), which are part of FCS.

The College Football Playoff (CFP) selection committee announced its final team rankings for the season on December 7, 2025.

The top five ranked conference champions, along with the seven highest ranked remaining teams, were selected to compete in the College Football Playoff. The top four ranked teams received a first-round bye. This was a change from the 2024–25 season, when the top four ranked conference champions were given a first-round bye.^[1]

This was the first time that two Group of Five teams – Tulane and James Madison – were included in the playoff.^[24][25]

The below lists of teams are based on team records as published by the NCAA and bowl eligibility criteria.

• ACC (11): California^†, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (FL), NC State, Pittsburgh, SMU, Virginia, Wake Forest
• American (8): Army, East Carolina, Memphis, Navy, North Texas, South Florida, Tulane, UTSA
• Big Ten (12): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon^†, Penn State, USC^†, Washington^†
• Big 12 (10): Arizona^†, Arizona State^†, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State^‡, Kansas State^‡, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah
• CUSA (7): Delaware^[g], FIU, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Louisiana Tech, Missouri State^[h], Western Kentucky
• MAC (5): Central Michigan, Miami (OH), Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
• Mountain West (7): Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah State
• Pac-12 (1): Washington State
• SEC (10): Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt
• Sun Belt (9): Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Louisiana, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy
• Independent (2): Notre Dame^‡, UConn

Number of postseason berths available: 82

Number of bowl-eligible teams: 82

^†: Former Pac-12 teams were considered for bowls with Pac-12 tie-ins instead of their current conference for 2025.

^‡ Iowa State, Kansas State, and Notre Dame opted out of their bowl games, but they were still bowl-eligible.

Several teams declined bowl bids:^[31]

• ACC (1): Florida State^†
• American (1): Temple^†[i]
• Big Ten (1): Rutgers^†
• Big 12 (5): Baylor^†, Kansas^†, UCF^†, Iowa State, Kansas State
• SEC (1): Auburn^†
• Independent (1): Notre Dame

^† Florida State, Temple, Rutgers, Baylor, Kansas, UCF, and Auburn were not bowl-eligible, but they were asked to participate in a bowl game due to bowl-eligible teams opting out.

• ACC (6): Boston College, Florida State, North Carolina, Stanford, Syracuse, Virginia Tech
• American (6): Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Rice^†, Temple, Tulsa, UAB
• Big Ten (6): Maryland, Michigan State, Purdue, Rutgers, UCLA, Wisconsin
• Big 12 (6): Baylor, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma State, UCF, West Virginia
• CUSA (5): Liberty, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, UTEP
• MAC (8): Akron^[j], Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, UMass
• Mountain West (5): Air Force, Colorado State, Nevada, San Jose State, Wyoming
• Pac-12 (1): Oregon State
• SEC (6): Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State^†, South Carolina
• Sun Belt (5): Appalachian State^†, Georgia State, Louisiana–Monroe, Marshall, South Alabama

Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 54

^† Appalachian State, Mississippi State, and Rice were not bowl-eligible, but they participated in a bowl game due to bowl-eligible teams opting out.

CFP bowl games are denoted in bold type. First-round CFP playoff games are included, and denoted as CFP1.

Notes:

• One CFP first-round game featured two SEC teams.
• The Birmingham Bowl featured two Sun Belt teams.
• The Sugar Bowl featured two SEC teams.
• The Peach Bowl featured two Big Ten teams.

This bowl season's 35 non-CFP bowl games utilized 31 different venues.^[k] Prestige and capacity of venues usually increases as the schedule progresses through December, in large part due to scheduling the top 25 teams late into the bowl games' time frame, while bowl games before Christmas typically involve schools in Group of Five conferences. The televising of bowl games was largely run by ESPN and its associated networks (ABC and ESPN2), with only three bowl games broadcast by a non-affiliated network:^[34] the Holiday Bowl on Fox, the Sun Bowl on CBS, and the Arizona Bowl on The CW.

The College Football Playoff, which includes the New Year's Six, was staged at a total of six different venues for the quarterfinals (4 games), semifinals (2 games), and championship (1 game):

• AT&T Stadium in Arlington was the venue for the Cotton Bowl, a quarterfinal.
• Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens was the venue for the Orange Bowl, a quarterfinal, and the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship.
• Rose Bowl in Pasadena was the venue for the Rose Bowl, a quarterfinal.
• Caesars Superdome in New Orleans was the venue for the Sugar Bowl, a quarterfinal.
• State Farm Stadium in Glendale was the venue for the Fiesta Bowl, a semifinal.
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was the venue for the Peach Bowl, a semifinal.

The four first-round games, not listed here, were contested at campus sites.

The following venues were selected to host more than one bowl game or all-star game:

• Caesars Superdome (New Orleans): New Orleans Bowl, Sugar Bowl
• Camping World Stadium (Orlando): Cure Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Citrus Bowl
• Ford Center at The Star (Dallas area): Frisco Bowl, Xbox Bowl, East–West Shrine Bowl†
• Hancock Whitney Stadium (Mobile): 68 Ventures Bowl, Senior Bowl†
• Hard Rock Stadium (Miami area): Orange Bowl, National Championship
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta): Peach Bowl, Celebration Bowl‡
• Raymond James Stadium (Tampa): Gasparilla Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl

† Denotes an all-star game
‡ Denotes an FCS bowl game

• Dochterman, Scott (December 26, 2025). "What's the future of bowl games? Bowl Season director talks impact of CFP, opt-outs and more". The Athletic. Archived from the original on December 27, 2025. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
• Paine, Neil (December 15, 2025). "The Silliest Bowls of the 2025-26 College Football Season, Ranked". Neil's Substack. Retrieved December 25, 2025 – via Substack.
• "2025-2026 College Football Bowl Game Officials". Behind the Football Stripes. Retrieved December 31, 2025 – via ProBoards.