No, not the Holiday Season, the Silly Season. That's the time of year when 70 of 124 FBS college football teams get to play an extra game known as a "bowl" game. There was a time the number was much, much lower, when there were only a tiny handful of bowl games played between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day all of them aired on the Big Three networks of CBS, NBC and ABC. Then someone came up with cable TV and 24-hour sports channels were born. Not long after the BCS was devised to settle once and for all which team was to be considered the National Champion.
Today, in order to participate in a bowl a team must have 6 regular season victories over other FBS schools and should be at least 6-6 for the year. (Georgia Tech gets a pass this year since the ACC has several teams deemed ineligible due to NCAA rules infractions. The Yellow Jackets are going to a bowl despite having a 6-7 record. Ohio State at 12-0 and Penn State at 8-4 will be sitting at home also due to NCAA sanctions. I told you it was Silly Season.)
Anyhoo....
I'll be making some predictions as to which team I think will win each of the bowl games. With so many to talk about, however I'll be breaking them down on a day-by-day basis starting with this Saturday's games.
In the mean time, here's a complete list of who is playing when and in which bowl. Most, but not all are airing on ESPN or ESPN2. Only the Sun Bowl (CBS), Capital One Bowl (ABC) and the Cotton Bowl (FOX) are listed as being on any of the "regular" networks. (NBC has none. Guess they went and put all their dough into Sunday Night Football with the NFL and the Olympics.)
| Date | Bowl | Teams | |
| 15-Dec | New Mexico | Nevada (7-5) | Arizona (7-5) |
| 15-Dec | Famous Idaho Potato | #18 Utah State (10-2) | Toledo (9-3) |
| 20-Dec | Poinsettia | BYU (7-5) | San Diego State (9-3) |
| 21-Dec | Beef O'Brady's | UCF (8-4) | Ball State (9-3) |
| 22-Dec | New Orleans | East Carolina (8-4) | Louisiana-Lafayette (8-4) |
| 22-Dec | Maaco Las Vegas | Boise State (10-2) | Washington (7-5) |
| 24-Dec | Hawaii | Fresno State (9-3) | SMU (6-6) |
| 26-Dec | Little Caesars Pizza | Central Michigan (6-6) | Western Kentucky (7-5) |
| 27-Dec | Military | #24 San Jose State (10-2) | Bowling Green (8-4) |
| 27-Dec | Belk | Cincinnati (9-3) | Duke (6-6) |
| 27-Dec | Holiday | Baylor (7-5) | #17 UCLA (9-4) |
| 28-Dec | Independence | Ohio (8-4) | Louisiana-Monroe (8-4) |
| 28-Dec | Russell Athletic | Rutgers (9-3) | Virginia Tech (6-6) |
| 28-Dec | Meineke Car Care | Minnesota (6-6) | Texas Tech (7-5) |
| 29-Dec | Armed Forces | Rice (6-6) | Air Force (6-6) |
| 29-Dec | Pinstripe | West Virginia (7-5) | Syracuse (7-5) |
| 29-Dec | Kraft Fight Hunger | Navy (7-4) | Arizona State (7-5) |
| 29-Dec | Alamo | Texas (8-4) | #15 Oregon State (9-3) |
| 29-Dec | Buffalo Wild Wings | TCU (7-5) | Michigan State (6-6) |
| 31-Dec | Music City | N.C. State (7-5) | Vanderbilt (8-4) |
| 31-Dec | Sun | USC (7-5) | Georgia Tech (6-7) |
| 31-Dec | Liberty | Iowa State (6-6) | Tulsa (10-3) |
| 31-Dec | Chick-fil-A | #9 LSU (10-2) | #14 Clemson (10-2) |
| 1-Jan | Heart of Dallas | Purdue (6-6) | Oklahoma State (7-5) |
| 1-Jan | Gator | Mississippi State (8-4) | #21 Northwestern (9-3) |
| 1-Jan | Capital One | #6 Georgia (11-2) | #23 Nebraska (10-3) |
| 1-Jan | Outback | #11 South Carolina (10-2) | #19 Michigan (8-4) |
| 1-Jan | Rose | #8 Stanford (11-2) | Wisconsin (8-5) |
| 1-Jan | Orange | #13 Florida State (11-2) | #16 Northern Illinois (12-1) |
| 2-Jan | Sugar | #4 Florida (11-1) | #22 Louisville (10-2) |
| 3-Jan | Fiesta | #5 Oregon (11-1) | #7 Kansas State (11-1) |
| 4-Jan | Cotton | #10 Texas A&M (10-2) | #12 Oklahoma (10-2) |
| 5-Jan | BBVA Compass | Pittsburgh (6-6) | Ole Miss (6-6) |
| 6-Jan | GoDaddy.com | #25 Kent State (11-2) | Arkansas State (9-3) |
| 7-Jan | BCS Title | #1 Notre Dame (12-0) | #2 Alabama (12-1) |
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