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College football’s sprawling bowl system has settled at 40 games at the conclusion of the 2017 season. That’s 37 standard bowl games, two College Football Playoff semifinal bowls, and the Playoff National Championship, which is also technically a bowl game.
The Football Bowl Association, which acts as the bowl schedule’s governing body, released a full list of conference tie-ins for the 2017 season. The bowl game slate is mostly unchanged from the 2016 season. The Miami Beach Bowl is moving to Frisco, Texas, after three years in South Florida. That game’s called the Frisco Bowl, even though it could’ve been taken in so many creative directions. Also, the Poinsettia Bowl is now defunct after a 12-year lifespan. It had been played in San Diego.
Here’s the full schedule and league tie-ins, as announced by the FBA:
2017 bowl game tie-ins and schedule
| Date | Bowl | Conference tie-ins |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Bowl | Conference tie-ins |
| Dec.16 | New Orleans | Sun Belt/Conference USA |
| Dec.16 | Cure | American/Sun Belt |
| Dec.16 | Las Vegas | Mountain West/Pac-12 |
| Dec.16 | New Mexico | Conference USA/Mountain West |
| Dec.16 | Camellia | MAC/Sun Belt |
| Dec. 19 | Boca Raton | American/Conference USA |
| Dec. 20 | Frisco | American/At-large |
| Dec. 21 | St. Petersburg | American/Conference USA |
| Dec. 22 | Bahamas | Conference USA/MAC |
| Dec. 22 | Potato | MAC/Mountain West |
| Dec. 23 | Birmingham | SEC/American |
| Dec. 23 | Armed Forces | Army/Big Ten |
| Dec. 23 | Dollar General | MAC/Sun Belt |
| Dec. 24 | Hawaii | American/Mountain West |
| Dec. 26 | Quick Lane | Big Ten/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 26 | Heart of Dallas | Big 12/Conference USA |
| Dec. 26 | Cactus | Big 12/Pac-12 |
| Dec. 27 | Independence | SEC/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 27 | Pinstripe | Big Ten/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 27 | Texas | Big 12/SEC |
| Dec. 28 | Military | ACC or Notre Dame/American |
| Dec. 28 | Camping World | Big 12/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 28 | Alamo | Big 12/Pac-12 |
| Dec. 29 | Belk | SEC/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 29 | Sun | Pac-12/ACC or Notre Dame |
| Dec. 29 | Music City | SEC/Big Ten/ACC/Notre Dame |
| Dec. 29 | Cotton | At-large/At-large |
| Dec. 30 | Arizona | Mountain West/Sun Belt |
| Dec. 30 | TaxSlayer | SEC/ACC/Big Ten/Notre Dame |
| Dec. 30 | Liberty | Big 12/SEC |
| Dec. 30 | Fiesta | At-large/At-large |
| Dec. 30 | Orange | ACC/Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame |
| Jan. 1 | Outback | Big Ten/SEC |
| Jan. 1 | Peach | At-large/At-large |
| Jan. 1 | Citrus | SEC/ACC/Big Ten/Notre Dame |
| Jan. 1 | Rose | Playoff semifinal |
| Jan. 1 | Sugar | Playoff semifinal |
| Jan. 8 | Playoff National Championship | Semifinal winners |
| TBA | Foster Farms | Big Ten/Pac-12 |
| TBA | Holiday | Big Ten/Pac-12 |
This year’s Playoff semifinals are the same as the event’s first year, the 2014 season: the Rose and Sugar Bowls. Those are normally tie-ins for the Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC, and Big 12, but those leagues have different arrangements this season. The national title game is in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the new home of the Falcons (and also the site of Week 1’s dynamite match between Alabama and Florida State.)
Conferences all have their own rules for doling out bids to their various contracted bowls. Those can get wonky sometimes, but they generally work toward two goals: Not sending teams to repeat appearances in the same bowl game and maximizing television ratings. Here’s are the lists of tie-ins for each FBS conference:
SEC
- Citrus (shared with ACC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Outback (vs. Big Ten)
- Orange (shared with ACC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Liberty (vs. Big 12)
- TaxSlayer (shared with ACC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Music City (shared with ACC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Belk (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Texas (vs. Big 12)
- Independence (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Birmingham (vs. American)
ACC
- Citrus (shared with SEC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Orange (shared with SEC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- TaxSlayer (shared with SEC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Music City (shared with SEC, Big Ten, Notre Dame)
- Sun (shared with Notre Dame, vs. Pac 12)
- Belk (shared with Notre Dame, vs. SEC)
- Camping World (shared with Notre Dame, vs. Big 12)
- Military (shared with Notre Dame, vs. American)
- Pinstripe (shared with Notre Dame, vs. Big Ten)
- Independence (shared with Notre Dame, vs. SEC)
- Quick Lane (shared with Notre Dame, vs. Big Ten)
Big Ten
- Citrus (shared with ACC, SEC, Notre Dame)
- Outback (vs. SEC)
- Orange (shared with ACC, SEC, Notre Dame)
- TaxSlayer (shared with ACC, SEC, Notre Dame)
- Music City (shared with ACC, SEC, Notre Dame)
- Pinstripe (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Quick Lane (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Armed Forces (vs. Army, if Black Knights are eligible)
- Foster Farms (vs. Pac-12)
- Holiday (vs. Pac-12)
Pac-12
- Sun (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Alamo (vs. Big 12)
- Cactus (vs. Big 12)
- Foster Farms (vs. Big Ten)
- Holiday (vs. Big Ten)
- Las Vegas (vs. Mountain West)
Big 12
- Liberty (vs. SEC)
- Alamo (vs. Pac-12)
- Camping World (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Texas (vs. SEC)
- Cactus (vs. Pac-12)
- Heart of Dallas (vs. Conference USA)
American
- Military (vs. ACC or Notre Dame)
- Hawaii (vs. Mountain West)
- Birmingham (vs. SEC)
- St. Petersburg (vs. Conference USA)
- Frisco (vs. at-large team)
- Boca Raton (vs. Conference USA)
- Cure (vs. Sun Belt)
Mountain West
- Arizona (vs. Sun Belt)
- Hawaii (vs. American)
- Potato (vs. MAC)
- New Mexico (vs. Conference USA)
- Las Vegas (vs. Pac-12)
MAC
- Dollar General (vs. Sun Belt)
- Potato (vs. Mountain West)
- Bahamas (vs. Conference USA)
- Camellia (vs. Sun Belt)
Conference USA
- Heart of Dallas (vs. Big 12)
- Bahamas (vs. MAC)
- St. Petersburg (vs. American)
- Boca Raton (vs. American)
- New Mexico (vs. Mountain West)
- New Orleans (vs. Sun Belt)
Sun Belt
- Arizona (vs. Mountain West)
- Dollar General (vs. MAC)
- Camellia (vs. MAC)
- Cure (vs. American)
- New Orleans (vs. Conference USA)