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College football bowl games: 2023-24 selections, schedule

By Brian Wilmer - December 3, 2023
College football bowl games: 2023-24 selections, schedule

Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

The college football bowl games for 2023-24 will be announced on Sunday, including the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six selections and schedule.

Below we will live blog the bowl games and pairings as they are announced on Sunday. The College Football Playoff Semifinal pairings will be announced first at 12:15pm ET on ESPN.

Bowl games hosting the College Football Playoff Semifinals this season are the Rose Bowl Game at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., and the Allstate Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, La. Both semifinal games will be played on New Year’s Day, Monday, Jan. 1, 2024.

At 2:30pm ET, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee will announce the New Year’s Six bowl game pairings. Those four games this season include the Goodyear Cotton Bowl (Friday, Dec. 29 in Arlington, Texas), Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 30 in Atlanta, Ga.), Capital One Orange Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 30 in Miami Gardens, Fla.), and Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (Monday, Jan. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.).

This season’s College Football Playoff National Championship will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.

For the complete list of games with date, time, and TV, check out our College Football Bowl Schedule and our College Football Playoff Schedule.

FOOTBALL SCHEDULES

BOWL SCHEDULE UPDATES

Saturday, Dec. 2

– Coastal Carolina and San Jose State will play in the EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl, which was initially reported by Brett McMurphy and later officially announced.

– Brett McMurphy reports that Jacksonville State and Louisiana will square off in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

– MEAC champion Howard and SWAC champion Florida A&M will meet in the Cricket Celebration Bowl.

Sunday, Dec. 3

– Good afternoon, kids! Brian here — I’ll tell you where your favorite team will play with all the snark and none of the corporatism! We’ll find out where the playoff rankings fall about 12:15-12:20 — whenever the commercials and stand-ups stop for a few seconds.

– BREAKING:  Every coach in the top six says their team is one of the four best!

– Here are your playoff teams for the last time before they water it all down:

#1 Michigan (13-0) vs. #4 Alabama (12-1) — Rose Bowl, 5pm ET, Monday, Jan. 1
#2 Washington (13-0) vs. #3 Texas (12-1) — Allstate Sugar Bowl, 8:45pm ET, Monday, Jan. 1
#5 Florida State (13-0)
#6 Georgia (12-1)

– Oh hey, at least Booger McFarland is going to call it as it is, calling the playoff a “travesty to the sport”. Good thing we only have one more year of this before we throw in a bunch of middling P5s to line the coffers. While we’re all venting over this, be sure to refresh this page regularly for the latest updates!

– “I think the committee did a great job.” – Kirk Herbstreit
Of course you do, Kirk. Of course you do. You would have said that no matter who got these spots.

– #5 Florida State vs. #6 Georgia in the Orange Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 30, 4pm ET, ESPN).

– Joey Galloway is seriously sitting here trying to tell us that no one on that dais cares about the games or the matchups. Really. This is the best stand-up comedy act I’ve seen in a decade.

– There may be no more appropriate name than Boo Corrigan, based on how this has turned out.

– BREAKING:  The next game is the most important game. Thanks for that pearl of wisdom from both Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.

– We’ll find out the next group of teams in an hour at 2:30 (Eastern). Thanks, ESPN, for allowing us the opportunity to hear the same people say the same stuff all afternoon. How would we ever get through a dreary December Sunday without your blessing us with this?

– NY6 stuff coming up soon. How will we have all this drama next year when we’re arguing over who’s #13 instead of who’s #5? The NCAA and ESPN will rake their cash, but lose the “compelling” television.

– Cotton (Dec. 29, 8pm ET, ESPN):  #9 Missouri vs. #7 Ohio State
– Peach (Dec. 30, noon ET, ESPN):  #11 Ole Miss vs. #10 Penn State
– Orange (Dec. 30, 4pm ET, ESPN):  #6 Georgia vs. #5 Florida State (we mentioned that earlier)
– Fiesta (Jan. 1, 1pm ET, ESPN):  #8 Oregon vs. #23 Liberty

– The final Top 25 is coming out now. Kevin will have the recap of that on the main site, so I won’t post that here.

Here comes the cascade of bowl matchups, thanks largely to our friend Brett McMurphy.
– New Mexico (Dec. 16, 5:45pm, ESPN):  New Mexico State vs. Fresno State
– Famous Idaho Potato (Dec. 23, 3pm, ESPN):  Utah State vs. Georgia State
– Los Angeles (Dec. 16, 7:30pm, ABC):  Boise State vs. UCLA
– Famous Toastery (Dec. 18, 2:30pm, ESPN):  Western Kentucky vs. Old Dominion
– Alamo (Dec. 28, 9:15pm, ESPN);  Arizona vs. Oklahoma
– Citrus (Jan. 1, 1pm, ESPN):  Iowa vs. Tennessee — somewhere, Steve Spurrier is smiling
– Camellia (Dec. 23, noon, ESPN):  Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois
– Armed Forces (Dec. 23, 3:30pm, ESPN):  JMU vs. Air Force
– Military (Dec. 27, 2pm, ESPN):  Tulane vs. Virginia Tech
– Fenway (Dec. 28, 11am, ESPN):  SMU vs. Boston College
– Liberty (Dec. 29, 3:30pm, ESPN):  Memphis vs. Iowa State
– Texas (Dec. 27, 9pm, ESPN):  Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M
– Las Vegas (Dec. 23, 7:30pm, ESPN):  Northwestern vs. Utah
– First Responder (Dec. 26, 5:30pm, ESPN):  Texas State vs. Rice
– Arizona (Dec. 30, 4pm, The CW/Barstool):  Toledo vs. Wyoming
– Cure (Dec. 16, 3:30pm, ABC):  Appalachian State vs. Miami (OH)
– Boca Raton (Dec. 21, 8pm, ESPN):  South Florida vs. Syracuse
– Gasparilla (Dec. 22, 6:30pm, ESPN):  UCF vs. Georgia Tech
– Birmingham (Dec. 23, noon, ESPN):  Duke vs. Troy
– Frisco (Dec. 19, 9pm, ESPN):  Marshall vs. UTSA
– Quick Lane (Dec. 26, 2pm, ESPN):  Bowling Green vs. Minnesota
– 68 Ventures (Dec. 23, 7pm, ESPN):  South Alabama vs. Eastern Michigan
– ReliaQuest (Jan. 1, noon, ESPN2):  LSU vs. Wisconsin
– Guaranteed Rate (Dec. 26, 9pm, ESPN):  Kansas vs. UNLV
– Independence (Dec. 16, 9:15pm, ESPN):  Texas Tech vs. Cal
– Myrtle Beach (Dec. 16, 11am, ESPN):  Georgia Southern vs. Ohio — three-quarters of Ohio lives there, so home game!
– Music City (Dec. 30, 2pm, ABC):  Auburn vs. Maryland
– Gator (Dec. 29, noon, ESPN):  Kentucky vs. Clemson
– Sun (Dec. 29, 2pm, CBS):  Oregon State vs. Notre Dame
– Holiday (Dec. 27, 8pm, FOX):  USC vs. Louisville
– Pop-Tarts (Dec. 28, 5:45pm, ESPN):  Kansas State vs. NC State
– Duke’s Mayo (Dec. 27, 5:30pm, ESPN):  West Virginia vs. North Carolina — I still think there needs to be a contest where a fan can win the “prize” of getting mayo dunked on them
– Pinstripe (Dec. 28, 2:15pm, ESPN):  Rutgers vs. Miami

– It’s 5:40pm (Eastern), and we still don’t have all the teams decided because Notre Dame is holding everything up on the ACC side. This was supposed to have been finished an hour and a half ago. Someday, we’ll have an entire bowl lineup. Someday.

– 6:02 Eastern, and we’re — finally — all done. Thanks for hanging out today and all season! May your favorite team(s) win and may you all have a joyous and blessed Christmas/holiday season. In the words of Blues Traveler, “If it’s Hanukkah or Kwanzaa / Solstice, Harvest, or December 25th / Peace on earth to everyone / and abundance to everyone you’re with”. Until next time, folks!

View Comments (35)

Comments (35)

How can Jacksonville State being playing in a bowl game when they are ineligible for postseason play? It is the same FCS-to-FBS rules that made a much more deserving James Madison ineligible to play for the Sun Belt championship and a bowl game.

When JMU made their late season exemption request, the NCAA knew then there wouldn’t be enough “bowl eligible” schools. They knew JMU would be going to a bowl game anyways. By denying the exemption request that would allow them to play in conference championship game, the NCAA screwed JMU out of a potential New Years Six appearance. Had they won their conference JMU would have been the 1-loss conference champion to get in and Liberty would be the undefeated conference champion left out. That denial that kept them out of the conference championship and the NY6 cost JMU millions of dollars.

With sometimes #1 Georgia suffering an embarrassing Loss to #8 Alabama and #5 Oregon getting a 2nd Loss, that moves #6 Ohio State up 2 rankings to #4 and into the PlayOffs!

Sad to see for sure. Would love to see what they do if Auburn beats Bama and then Bama would have beat Georgia. How do they justify the sec spot?

The CFP committee just killed college sports as we know them (as if they weren’t dying anyway). The message the committee just sent is that the only conferences that matter are the Big Ten and the the SEC. You think Florida State wanted out of the ACC this summer? Wait until now. They, and any other school that can, will run for the exits even faster than they have already tried to. They’ll pay whatever exit fee is necessary and jump ship as soon as possible. At some time in the near future, when there are only two conferences in college sports, and when every other school that isn’t in the Big Ten or SEC is irrelevant, remember this day.

That is not how the selection process works. They have said tons of times already that it is not who deserved it the most, but who are the best. Alabama was clearly playing better than Florida State was. They weren’t snubbed because they were in the ACC, it was because Bama looked better than them. Whether or not you think that is how you think it should be run is up to you, but don’t sit here and blame this whole thing as to why everybody is abandoning ship to go play in the Big Ten and SEC. Texas, a Big 12 team, got in because they looked miles better at the end of the year than FSU. This is not as black and white as you are making it out to be.

I think there’s a lot of reason to complain about Big 10/SEC biases in college football. I think there are a lot of reasons to say that it should be the “most deserving teams” in the playoff… those that earned their way in… rather than “the best 4 teams” which is what the CFP committee has been told they’re supposed to find (since one could be defined solidly, statistically, based on the on-field wins and head-to-head matchups, and the other is based on what you think will make good matchups, which people are often bad at guessing at).

But I also think 90% of the problem is that 5 power conferences (plus the G5 conferences) somehow signed on to the idea that they should play a 4-team playoff. Someone was always going to be left out. It was a dumb thing to agree to. They probably should have gone with 6 or 8 if they weren’t ready to start out with 12 or 16. And honestly, I think there’s done merit to the idea that 6 or 8 would be better than 12 anyway since, in my mind, if you’re not the best team in your conference, how are you playing to be the best team in the country? This is football… the regular season matters more than any of those 64-team-tournament sports and I’m not sure why the 2nd place team in a conference should usually be in the playoff, much less the 3rd or 4th place teams.

Anyway, part of my point is this: any of the top 5 teams this year being left out would have an argument for why they were wronged. And next year, all 5 of these teams would be in (even if several of them wouldn’t be top 4 since they’ll be in the same conferences).

FSU fans should be pissed. But if Texas got left out, they would have reason to be pissed. If Bama got left out… they’d probably be the other team that you’d have to consider, and there’s a lot of reason they would have to be pissed too. Next year there may be reasons to grumble, but a power 5 (4?) conference champ being left out will be eliminated as a possibility, both due to realignment/condensing and because of the start of the 12 team playoff. It almost certainly won’t be perfect, but the complaints of this year are already being addressed.

Side note, the Playoff Committee chair is terrible at explaining everything. Even with the stuff I agree with, I hear him talk and think, “wait, that’s why you made that decision?!? I agreed with the decision, but if that’s why you did it you’re still wrong…!”

You’re right Damon. The ACC won more head-to-head games than the SEC this season.

“I don’t care how many times ACC teams beat SEC teams on the field, the SEC is still better because the SEC looks better losing than the ACC looks winning!” -CFP committee

David Hanson, why play a season at all? Why play a full season, keep score, and keep a tally of wins and losses? Just have the teams go out on the field for 2 consecutive Saturdays around Thanksgiving and let them run up and down the field without keeping score, like a scrimmage. Then at the end of that choose the teams that LOOK the best instead of who would actually earn it.

Those making excuses for the committee keep claiming that Florida State wasn’t the same team the last two weeks (which included rivalry week), as they had looked previously. Thats a bogus argument comparing Florida State to Florida State. Let’s look at rivalry week. Auburn and Florida were pretty much equal teams this season, I feel most would agree with that. Florida’s most embarrassing loss was against Arkansas, while Auburn’s was New Mexico State just the week prior to rivalry week. So how is Florida State’s 9-point win over Florida a “bad” win, while in the same week Alabama’s hail Mary 3-point win over Auburn make them playoff caliber? Just the week prior on the same field, New Mexico State won by 21 points, and all Alabama could pull off is a 3-point victory.

And 4 of the 5 power conference championship games are played indoors. Florida State beat Louisville in pretty sloppy weather conditions. Rainy, sloppy conditions known to adversely impact offense in football. Florida State still prevailed by 10 points despite not having the benefit of playing in a sterile environment like the other 4 (power) conference champs. The argument that Florida State didn’t look as good the last 2 weeks as they previously had is bogus. Florida State earned their way in.

I turned off ESPN once I saw the top 6. Their talking heads are impossible to listen to. I’ll be checking in here to see bowl matchups.

I watch so you don’t have to. :) You’re more than welcome — I’ll have updates as they’re available!

Please stay hydrated Brian!

Though I can’t say watching AZ/Pit or ATL/NYJ is much better then ESPN recycling talking points, but at least I have an investment in each of those!

Evan, someone had to play the Group of 5 champ. A Group of 5 champ will be in the expanded playoff too. If the 12-team playoff had started last year AND conference champs seeded #1-#6 followed by at large seeded #7-#12, the first round match up of #6 v #11 would have been Tulane v USC. How did THAT game go last year? At some point a group of 5 champ will Boise State an Oklahoma.

As far as this year goes, it probably should have been #7 Ohio State v #8 Oregon, #9 Mizzou v #10 Penn State, and #11 Ole Miss v #23 Liberty. That is probably how it should have been, but there is a problem. If Liberty were to upset Ole Miss, like Tulane did USC last year or New Mexico State did Auburn this year, it would be an embarrassment to the SEC. The powers that be cannot allow any embarrassments to the SEC. Yes, Oregon is going to the Big Ten next year, but as it stands, it represents a dying conference. If Liberty does upset Oregon, it will be the Pac that gets the L.

Stuff like this makes me miss the BCS. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always liked schools from Non-AQ/G5 conferences, but they should only qualify for a NY6 Bowl if they’re in the Top 12 of the rankings.

An undefeated and conference championship team has been stepped over at the expensed of the 1-loss flawed champion from a conference that went 4 and 6 against the undefeated champion’s conference during the season and we are all expected to just bow our collective heads with assent in recognition of flawed champion’s superiority. This is too much to take!!

Dittos, Spencer Coldburn.

Every Trust Five ACC Team who doesn’t publicly sign their names to the empirical points listed by the FSU AD & verifiable by their own cross checking is implicitly assenting to CEO Bill Hancock’s CFPA, LLC arrainged committee chair press conference rationalization of SEC invitation.

Starting next year ND should have a CFP or bust policy. As it stands they haven’t won a major bowl since 1993, or a title since 1988.

Had they turned down a bowl this year, Mississippi State would be in line to go bowling as having the second-best APR among 5-7 teams.

No team will ever willingly turn down extra practices. It’s just not going to happen.

Minor bowls are the NIT of college football. At least to me. As major conference teams left out of March Madness have no business going to the NIT. Winning the NIT is the black sheep of accomplishments for major conference basketball programs.

Depends on how “minor” the bowl game is. If you’re 9-3, and going for your 10th win of the season, that is in no way a minor bowl.

As I referenced early, the ACC has an undefeated champion and is a conference that went 6 and 4 against the SEC is season. The SEC has a 1-loss champion that lost to the Big 12 champions, a conference that went 2 and 1 against the SEC is season. I just don’t see and cogent manor of thought that justifies placing Alabama ahead of Florida State. Results are what we all watch and value – not staged posturing. This is inexplicable.

None of the ACC over SEC wins were “upsets”, except for maybe Miami over A&M.
Bottom-half-of-the-league Kentucky just beat the #2 ACC team Louisville the other week.
Sorry, but the ACC couldn’t ride on the coattails of Jameis Winston and Deshaun Watson for much longer. Within a decade, it will be in the same position as the Pac12.

Dan is pulling for Michigan Wolverines to win College Football National Championship. Despite no three-peat Dan is pulling for Georgia Bulldogs to win Orange Bowl.

I love it that the 2023-24 Bowl Schedule (PDF; no images) downloadable PDF file does not have team names. But you can always download the bowl schedule with helmet images and cross-reference it if you really want to know who plays who in each bowl game.

I am blessed & happy that Fighting Irish of Notre Dame four year drought on CBS is over when they play in Sun Bowl vs Oregon State Beavers in which Network will televise for 55th time & speaking of CBS again hope you do not mind & my dream having Fighting Irish game for week 3 of 2024 College Football Season at Purdue Boilermakers to be a 3:30PM Kickoff. Would like to see iconic fast food chain McDonald’s be main title sponsor for CBS Big Ten Football Broadcast.