There are 41 FBS bowl games, four on-campus playoff games, and a national championship game. But which bowl game is the best? A scientific ranking.
41. Arizona Bowl (Tucson, AZ — December 27, 3:30pm, The CW/Barstool)
The first-ever version of this game featured two teams from the same conference. Since then, it has been sucked into the Barstool orbit. No thanks.
40.5. Bahamas Bowl (non-Bahamas edition: location, time, TV TBD)
The Bahamas Bowl will not be in the Bahamas this year. That is a colossal bummer. Two years ago this happened, and it was called the Famous Toastery Bowl, was played in Charlotte, and featured a 28-point Western Kentucky comeback to beat Old Dominion. But it wasn’t the Bahamas Bowl.
40. 68 Ventures Bowl (Mobile, AL — December 17, 7:30pm, ESPN)
Formerly the Camellia Bowl. Now probably named for a venture capital firm or mortgage company or something.
39. Salute to Veterans (nee Camellia) Bowl (Montgomery, AL — December 16, 8pm, ESPN)
They took the Camellia Bowl and made it into the Military Bowl.
38. Birmingham Bowl (Birmingham, AL — December 29, 1pm, ESPN)
Let the record show that this means the bowl game held in Shreveport is going to be ranked higher than the three in Alabama. At least it has a sensible name (though renaming it the STEEL BOWL would shoot it up to at least #30 in the rankings).
37. Military Bowl (Annapolis, MD — December 27, 10am, ESPN)
Come for the flag-humping, stay for the Northrop Grumman ads! Only an ECU-NC State brawl can rescue this nonsense, which used to be sponsored by GoBowling.com, which was at least exactly what it said it was.
36. Fenway Bowl (Boston, MA— December 27, 1:15pm, ESPN)
Why?
35. LA Bowl (Inglewood, CA — December 13, 8pm, ESPN)
DO YOU GET IT? BOWL GAMES ARE SO SILLY THAT ANYONE CAN SPONSOR THEM, EVEN JIMMY KIMMEL.
None of these games in the LA Bowl’s five years of being have been remotely interesting or competitive. This year, it kicks off the whole of bowl season.
34. Myrtle Beach Bowl (Conway, SC — December 19, 11am, ESPN)
Only six years of this game since the teal turf became A Thing, and all six games have been terrible.
33. First Responder Bowl (University Park, TX — December 26, 7pm, ESPN)
The only good thing this bowl ever did was get canceled midway through Boise State-Boston College.
32. Texas Bowl (formerly known as the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas, Houston — December 27, 8:15pm, ESPN)
I watched Northwestern lose to Texas A&M here once, and I’m pretty sure that 10 years later that got me a job with some folks who haaaaaated A&M (and were amazed I had been to Reliant Stadium and still called it that).
31. Rate Bowl (Phoenix, AZ — December 26, 3:30pm, ESPN)
Was thinking about rating this one higher because of that stupid-late Minnesota-West Virginia kick a few years ago, but then saw that it’s been moved up and remembered it’s played in a baseball stadium. POINTS OFF.
30. Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, FL — December 23, 1pm, ESPN)
I couldn’t tell you a single thing about this bowl game OTHER than that it used to be sponsored by Cheribundi Tart Cherry. I would say that $250,000 that Cheribundi paid about 10 years ago was worth it, only I’ve never bought a single Cheribundi product.
29. Cure Bowl (Orlando, FL — December 17, 4pm, ESPN)
All I remember about this game is that (1) Andy Grammer was once the halftime show, and (2) it’s for a good cause. That’ll get you out of the 30s, Cure Bowl.
28. Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, NV — December 31, 2:30pm, ESPN)
Northwestern has won this bowl game, which tells you about everything you need to know.
27. Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, FL — December 19, 2:30pm, ESPN)
A once-great bowl game: MagicJack. Beef O’Brady’s. Bad Boy Mowers. Bitcoin, back when it was an amusement and not a made-up annoyance that is the obsession of the worst people you know. Put all that in a cocktail shaker, pour it out in the Tropicana Dome (RIP), and see what you get.
What’s that? It’s Marshall and FIU slap-fighting on a Tuesday afternoon? Fuck you if you don’t appreciate that greatness.
26. Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, TX — January 2, 12pm, ESPN)
Swap out Northrup Grumman for Lockheed Martin in this one, but also swap out “ACC vs. AAC” for “service academy vs. who the fuck knows + a whole bunch of cocaine.” Six of the last eleven have been one-score games, and those that weren’t featured an average of 63 points, including Army’s 70-14 drubbing of Houston and Cal’s 55-36 win over Air Force.
25. Peach Bowl (Atlanta, GA — CFP Semifinal: January 9, 6:30pm, every ESPN channel)
Before last year’s Texas-Arizona State donnybrook, there had never been a good Peach Bowl in its 56 years of existence. You can try fact-checking me, but you’ll be forced to admit “Goddamn, that bowl game really does suck.”
24. Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA — December 30, 1pm, ESPN)
Coasting on 25 years of this legacy? Fine.
23. Frisco Bowl (Frisco, TX — December 23, 8pm, ESPN)
Has given us some good shootouts and the heartwarming sight of Kent State winning its first bowl game ever(?), then the Golden Flashes’ coach getting bukkaked by Tropical Smoothie smoothie in the celebratory postgame Gatorade dump.
22. New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, NM — December 27, 4:45pm, ESPN)
Was better when it was one of the first games. But there have been good moments, good views, generally good vibes from Albuquerque.
21. GameAbove Sports Bowl (nee Motor City Bowl, nee Pizza Pizza Bowl, nee PJ Fleck Memorial Quick Lane Bowl; Detroit, MI — December 26, 12pm, ESPN)
In the “so bad it’s good” variety, the conference booby prize.
20. Pinstripe Bowl (New York City — December 27, 11am, ABC)
Four indelible memories from this one:
- Watching something like Rutgers-Iowa State in an early iteration of this while drinking in a hotel room with the band before the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas,
- Indiana forgetting that field goals are supposed to go through the posts, not over them, and losing to Duke—who loses to Duke?!—as a result,
- Northwestern beating Pitt because Justin Jackson the Ball Carrier was really fucking good and football and all my friends who were there texting me how cold and shitty it was, and
- Watching Iowa beat Boston College from some sports bar in Iowa City—let’s say Bo James—for no reason other than I was there by myself and didn’t want to do research.
Incidentally, the Big Ten has won eight straight Pinstripe Bowls since the Hoosiers struggled to kick that one particular field goal. It’s a pretty shitty bowl game, otherwise.
19. Liberty Bowl (Memphis, TN — January 2, 3:30pm)
Feels like this should be higher. And yet! Science!
18. New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, LA — December 23, 4:30pm, ESPN)
I don’t know how, for the longest time, they guaranteed that this game was going to kick off at, like, 8:45pm on a Tuesday night in mid-December, but somehow they did it. And usually there are points galore, for some reason. I don’t make the rules.
t-15. Fiesta Bowl (Glendale, AZ — CFP Semifinal, January 8, 6:30pm, ESPN family)
t-15. Cotton Bowl (Arlington, TX — CFP Quarterfinal, December 31, 6:30pm, ESPN family)
t-15. Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, LA — CFP Quarterfinal: January 1, 7pm, ESPN family)
Shitty NFL stadiums as a monument to man’s hubris. Today, so much sanitized and corporatized ESPN hype that it’s hardly a bowl game.
I was going to rate the Sugar Bowl higher, but looking back at the participants has reminded me (1) it just gets a lot of hype, and (2) I don’t, in fact, care if I see Ohio State or Michigan beat an SEC team.
14. Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, FL — CFP Quarterfinal, January 1, 11am, ESPN family)
I’ll put the Orange Bowl higher, because Mark Mangino holding up a bowl of oranges. But other than that, now that the College Football Playoff has hollowed these out, who cares?
13. Holiday Bowl (San Diego, CA — TBD for 2025, FOX)
Does it feel like this one should be higher? It feels like this one should be higher. Alas.
12. Pop-Tarts Bowl (Orlando, FL — December 27, 2:30pm, ABC)
My general rule of thumb is that if it’s played in Camping World Stadium, you probably don’t want to watch it.
This rule has yet to let me down, and it keeps the Pop-Tarts Bowl out of the Top 10, even given the live sacrifice of a Pop-Tart.
Also, this:
Formerly known as the Blockbuster / Carquest / MicronPC / Tangerine / Champs Sports / Russell Athletic / Camping World / Cheez-It Bowl
That is a lineup right there.
11. Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte, NC — January 2, 7pm, ESPN)
We get it. You dump a watery mayo mixture on the head of a coach. You’re still just the Belk Bowl with a shittier sponsor.
10. Gaylord Hotels Glen Mason Memorial Music City Bowl (Nashville, TN — December 30, 4:30pm, ESPN)
There’s definitely nostalgia for my youth here — god knows I watched Minnesota play there every other year of Grinnin’ Glen’s tenure. And then, having been there to see Northwestern beat Kentucky a few years later? Worth it. Nashville’s a good town, even if it’s a little Bachelorettes on Broadway now.
9. Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, FL — December 27, 6:30pm, ABC)
OK, so I don’t know what the impetus was for moving this game to December 27 rather than a more appropriate January 2, but decisions were made. So be them. Still, a solid bowl game in—dare I say it—not the worst city in America.
8. ReliaQuest Bowl (Tampa, FL — December 31, 11am, ESPN)
Very much a casualty of the modern college football landscape. This would’ve been #3 at worst back in the Outback Bowl days—the Bloomin’ Onions we would have, oh! the Bloomin’ Onions.
(I remember us going to one in Chattanooga, TN, the day after Tennessee pasted Northwestern in the Outback Bowl. Most of us wearing purple. A couple side-eyes, and then a couple grins of recognition when each of our tables had a massive-ass Bloomin’ Onion on it.)
7. Citrus Bowl (Orlando, FL — December 31, 2pm, ABC)
Bowl of citrus. Nice location. Usually a reward. Good football. What’s not to like?
6. Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX — December 31, 1pm, CBS)
A throwback to a simpler time — a game on a non-ESPN channel, good views and shenanigans football. Long live the 2008 Sun Bowl.
5. Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, TX — December 30, 8pm, ESPN)
A bowl game that is only three years younger than me — I can call that a classic, right?
Some batshit endings, from Nebraska-Michigan to TCU-Oregon, some memorable blowouts (shut up, Nebraska fans), and, in a past life, the Big Ten right there in the thick of it. Usually two teams enjoyable enough that they’re not the soulless CFP types, bad enough that they’re going to allow a trillion points. And, by all accounts from the NUMB folks who got to go to this game a year before I did, good to the bands and the visiting crowds.
4. Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu, HI — December 24, 7pm, ESPN)
AKA “the excuse to stop talking to your family on Christmas Eve.” Works every time.
Running on fumes in part from how fun some of those early 2000s Hawai’i teams were, and it’s definitely not the same in Clarence Ching Stadium, the Hawai’i Bowl still offers some high scoring totals and, in 2024, a 5OT slapfight between South Florida and San Jose State.
3. Bahamas Bowl, Bahamas Edition (Nassau, BH— not played this year)
Skating by on legacy? Possibly. But the 2014 Bahamas Bowl between Western Kentucky and Central Michigan was so damn good, and the game is always such a clusterfuck, that you can’t not love it. Six of the ten editions of this bowl—including the 2023 Famous Toastery Bowl, played in Charlotte as this year’s likely will be—have been decided by a single score. It’s usually around Christmas, you’re home, and there’s nothing else on. The winner gets the Prime Minister’s Trophy.
We love the Bahamas Bowl. Get well soon, Thomas Robinson Stadium.
2. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, ID — December 22, 1pm, ESPN)
Blue turf. Needlessly cold. Potato puns abound. Formerly a bowl game that did some good, then one that was sponsored by a dot-com (long live the micronPC.com Humanitarian Bowl),
1. Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA — CFP quarterfinal: January 1, 3pm, ESPN family)
The time change, the TV change, the College Football Playoff have all taken the luster off the only conceivable choice for #1. And yet this is the only bowl game that I would consider selling one of my children to attend.
Has this made you angry? It’s made me angry.