The 2007 college football season is held in high esteem as one of the wildest seasons of the past 25 years. Every week it felt like a top-five team was getting upset and the Top 10 was just a revolving door of surprising names like Cal, Boston College, Kansas and West Virginia.
Maybe, just maybe, we’re getting a dose of that in 2025. That’s partly because there are no dominant teams (Ohio State and Indiana excepted, perhaps). It really feels like anybody can beat anybody on a given Saturday and you’re just a few games from thinking a winless season is on the table to wondering about a bowl game. That’s not good for the long-term outlook for some head coaches given such parity, but it makes sitting in front of your TV for 18 hours well worth the time investment.
There may not be a better example of the nature of this season than the latest bowl projections. There’s no Penn State or Clemson after both were ranked in the top five during the preseason. Texas appears closer to the Texas Bowl than the College Football Playoff. There’s no Florida in the postseason, fresh off firing its head coach, but Florida International is in.
As a result of such chaos, we also get some compelling matchups. How fun would the Pop-Tarts Bowl be if Louisville and BYU narrowly missed out on the CFP? Auburn and Florida State meeting in the Mayo Bowl would not only be a reunion of the 2013 BCS title game, but a fitting conclusion to both teams’ downward trending year. The quarterback moxie levels at the ReliaQuest Bowl would be off the charts between Nebraska and Vanderbilt. Michigan and Tennessee can settle that Heisman debate from 1997 in the Citrus Bowl. That’s just a sampling of the fun.
Here is how sees all of the 35 bowl games coming together to form the postseason picture and which 70 FBS teams will wind up going bowling in 2025–26 after Week 8.
Bowl
Date
Matchup
L.A. Bowl
Dec. 13
Washington State vs. San Diego State
Salute to Veterans Bowl
Dec. 16
Troy vs. Jacksonville State
Cure Bowl
Dec. 17
North Texas vs. James Madison
68 Ventures Bowl
Dec. 17
Georgia Southern vs. Bowling Green
Myrtle Beach Bowl
Dec. 19
Old Dominion vs. Central Michigan
Gasparilla Bowl
Dec. 19
East Carolina vs. Appalachian State
Potato Bowl
Dec. 22
Ohio vs. Boise State
Boca Raton Bowl
Dec. 23
Buffalo vs. Marshall
New Orleans Bowl
Dec. 23
Louisiana Tech vs. Southern Miss
Frisco Bowl
Dec. 23
Kennesaw State vs. Utah State
Hawai‘i Bowl
Dec. 24
Western Kentucky vs. Hawai‘i
Sports Bowl
Dec. 26
Toledo vs. Temple
Rate Bowl
Dec. 26
TCU vs. Washington
First Responder Bowl
Dec. 26
Cal vs. Kansas
Military Bowl
Dec. 27
Navy vs. San Diego State
Pinstripe Bowl
Dec. 27
Duke vs. Minnesota
Fenway Bowl
Dec. 27
Wake Forest vs. Tulane
Pop-Tarts Bowl
Dec. 27
Louisville vs. BYU
Arizona Bowl
Dec. 27
Western Michigan vs. UNLV
New Mexico Bowl
Dec. 27
Fresno State vs. Texas State
Gator Bowl
Dec. 27
Virginia vs. Oklahoma
Texas Bowl
Dec. 27
Baylor vs. Texas
Birmingham Bowl
Dec. 29
Mississippi State vs. Memphis
Independence Bowl
Dec. 30
Kansas State vs. UConn
Music City Bowl
Dec. 30
Iowa vs. LSU
Alamo Bowl
Dec. 30
Houston vs. USC
ReliaQuest Bowl
Dec. 31
Nebraska vs. Vanderbilt
Sun Bowl
Dec. 31
SMU vs. Arizona
Citrus Bowl
Dec. 31
Michigan vs. Tennessee
Vegas Bowl
Dec. 31
Arizona State vs. Illinois
Armed Forces Bowl
Jan. 2
UTSA vs. Iowa State
Liberty Bowl
Jan. 2
Cincinnati vs. Missouri
Mayo Bowl
Jan. 2
Florida State vs. Auburn
Holiday Bowl
Jan. 2
Pitt vs. Utah
TBD/Bahamas Bowl
TBD
Florida International vs. Miami (Ohio)
