Category Archives: Bowl Updates & Previews

Recapping the 2024-2025 College Football Bowl Season

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The 2024–25 college football bowl season was marked by significant changes and memorable performances. This season introduced the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP), a shift from the previous four-team format, aiming to provide more teams with a pathway to the national championship.

College Football Playoff Highlights:

  • First Round: The inaugural first-round games were held on December 20 and 21, 2024, at campus sites. Notable outcomes included:
    • Notre Dame defeating Indiana 27–17 at Notre Dame Stadium.
    • Penn State securing a 38–10 victory over SMU at Beaver Stadium.
    • Texas overcoming Clemson with a 38–24 win at Texas Memorial Stadium.
    • Ohio State dominating Tennessee 42–17 at Ohio Stadium.
  • Quarterfinals: The quarterfinals took place from December 31, 2024, through January 2, 2025, at traditional bowl venues:
    • Penn State defeated Boise State 31–14 in the Fiesta Bowl.
    • Texas edged out Arizona State 39–31 in a double-overtime thriller at the Peach Bowl.
    • Ohio State upset the previously undefeated Oregon 41–21 in the Rose Bowl.
    • Notre Dame triumphed over Georgia 23–10 in the Sugar Bowl.
  • Semifinals: The semifinals were held on January 9 and 10, 2025:
    • In the Orange Bowl, Notre Dame secured a spot in the championship by defeating Penn State 27–24, with a late interception setting up the game-winning field goal.
    • At the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State earned their championship berth by overcoming Texas 28–14, bolstered by a key defensive stop and a fumble return for a touchdown.
  • Championship Game: The national championship is scheduled for January 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, featuring a historic matchup between Notre Dame and Ohio State. This game marks the first time these storied programs will face each other for the title in the CFP era.

Notable Storylines:

  • Coaching Movements: The season witnessed significant coaching changes, most notably Bill Belichick’s unexpected move to the University of North Carolina, signaling a trend of high-profile coaches transitioning to the college ranks.
  • Transfer Portal Dynamics: Player mobility increased, exemplified by quarterback Darian Mensah’s $8 million transfer from Tulane to Duke, highlighting the evolving landscape of player compensation and movement.
  • Viewership Trends: Despite the expanded playoff format, the CFP semifinals experienced a 17% drop in television ratings compared to the previous season, averaging 19.2 million viewers. This decline raises questions about viewer engagement with the new structure.

Conference Performances:

The bowl season also showcased varying performances across conferences. For instance, the Big Ten had a strong showing with multiple teams advancing deep into the CFP, while Conference USA faced challenges, recording a 1–4 bowl record.

As the season concludes, the college football landscape continues to evolve, balancing tradition with modern dynamics, setting the stage for future developments in the sport.

Bowl game thoughts after January 2 games

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Now that the College Football Playoff semifinals have all bee played, I think it is clear who is going to win the National Championship. Ohio State is playing lights out – at a level the other teams have not shown. The Michigan game must have woken the Buckeyes up as it certainly opened up their playbook.

Since the original observations of the bowl season article on December 29th, I have to say that Ohio State now has the most impressive win of the bowl season and the second most impressive win as well. Arizona State surely impressed in defeat – that program is heading in the right direction for sure. Penn State was quite impressive as well and the Big Ten is surely going to be loaded next year as Michigan is back folks. Think about Michigan for a moment – they have wins over Ohio State and Alabama in their last two games. Alabama who was arguably a CFP team and Ohio State, the team that appears poised to win the whole thing. If Ohio State goes on to win the whole thing, then Michigan will win the “Psychological Warfare” National Championship as every Buckeye fan will still remember that upset in Columbus back in November.

Speaking of Alabama, the talking heads and coaches who made the most noise pinned to Alabama and Ole Miss as the two teams that should have possibly snuck in ahead of SMU as the 12th team in the playoffs. While true, SMU did not look good in their opening round loss to Penn State, to be honest none of the road teams looked good in the opening round. Alabama went out and lost to Michigan with an offense that looked overmatched by the Michigan defense which was missing key players who sat out of the contest. And Ole Miss destroyed Duke 52-20 in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, making a much stronger case for their inclusion than Alabama. As a result, Ole Miss gets the 2024 bowl season “We Got Screwed” Award.

Back to the Big Ten, in addition to the Ohio State and Penn State CFP wins, the December 30-31 bowl games included wins by Michigan and Illinois over the SEC and Iowa falling to Missouri in the Music City Bowl, leaving the Big Ten at 6-4 in bowl games plus the Ohio State and Penn State opening round wins at home. Why those games are not considered bowl games is ridiculous by the way…

Observations from the 2024-2025 bowl season

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The 2024-2025 college football bowl season continues to push forward, taking a break today for the NFL to take center-stage. With that pause in the action it gives us here at Football-Bowl.com a moment to reflect on some notable pieces to the puzzle that has been this year’s bowl season.

Most Impressive Bowl Win

The Most impressive win of the bowl season so far has been #8 seed Ohio State crushing #9 seed Tennessee in the opening round of the College Football Playoff. Seeing TCU dominate their bowl game and Syracuse’s offense with Kyle McCord has been quite impressive as well, but the Buckeyes win in the CFP to get things started is easily the most impressive win.

Most Surprising Loss

Watching Colorado play last night was tough. They were totally outmanned even with Travis Hunter and company playing. It was 20-0 BYU at the half, and when Sander to Hunter got the Buffs on the board, the defense could not get off the field to keep the momentum. BYU took the 34-14 win and made Deion Sanders’ team look silly.

Most Impressive Band

Watching the Ohio State vs. Tennessee game was one that impressed with the bands as both sounded good over the TV airwaves, but what was even more impressive were the two bands in the Ohio Bobcats vs. Jacksonville State game. The TV cameras must have had their microphones well-placed as both marching bands sounded amazing during the game, and the Ohio University Marching 110 already has a (well-deserved) reputation as one of the most impressive bands on the planet.

What the heck did I just see?

The Snoop Dog Bowl is a cool idea. Truly unique all-around. But my eyes are still trying to figure out what I saw with the start of the halftime as Snoop Dog “led” the Miami (OH) and Colorado State bands as they played his hit song Who Am I? I understand there may have been time constraints with receiving music, etc., but how the heck are you on TV playing with a flip folder? All of the good marching bands in high school and above memorize their music. Here is your big moment bands, but no matter the reason it looked tacky and amateur…

 

Three bowl games highlight Thursday, December 26th

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Three bowl games played today will highlight the sports calendar as ESPN will be busy with college football bowl games from 2 pm ET until midnight or later. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Sun Belt each have one team in action today, on this day after Christmas, while the Mid-American Conference (MAC) has two teams playing. Let’s take a look at the bowl game schedule for today below.

  • GameAbove Sports Bowl – Pittsburgh vs. Toledo
    Ford Field (Detroit)
    2 p.m., ESPN
  • Guaranteed Rate Bowl – Rutgers vs. Kansas State
    Chase Field (Phoenix)
    5:30 p.m., ESPN
  • 68 Ventures Bowl – Arkansas State vs. Bowling Green
    Hancock Whitney Stadium (Mobile, Alabama)
    9 p.m., ESPN

MAC Champion Ohio Bobcats look to get MAC’s first bowl season win

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The Mid-American Conference does not seem to be what it used to be. A mid-major, capable of pulling a big upset any given Saturday in the Fall, and a conference with an occasional BCS bowl game participant or Top 25 member. Unfortunately for the MAC and similar conferences, the NIL era is here and most are following the money. And with that, the MAC, a conference stuck in the middle Big Ten’s traditional footprint and recruiting lanes, sits, looking to make a name for themselves. The bowl season each year is always a great chance to open eyes and impress, but so far the 2024-2025 bowl appearances for the MAC are not playing out how they would have liked.

Enter the Ohio Bobcats. Picked to finish near the bottom of the MAC this season, Ohio went 2-2 in non-conference play and fans were pleasantly surprised. Coming off of the program’s first back-to-back 10-win seasons, the idea that the Bobcats could do it again was a long shot. Their Quarterback transferred to Indiana and has led the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff. Half of their starters left in the Transfer Portal. But continuity and consistency from the staff was the key, as the Bobcats lost just a single MAC game, on the road to rival Miami of Ohio in a game that injuries definitely played a large role.

Now the Bobcats look to reverse the MAC’s fortunes as they face Jacksonville State at 12 noon Eastern today in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl. Yes, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Miami, and Toledo all have bowl games ahead of them, but with Western Michigan’s early loss the conference’s hopes of a stellar bowl season may hinge on their champions getting that streak started, and there is no better option in the MAC this year.