List of college bowl games

The following is a list of current, defunct, and proposed College football bowl games. Five bowl games are currently part of the Bowl Championship Series, a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. There are also a number of other College football postseason invitationals, as well as several all-star games. The number of bowl games (now a staggering 35, requiring 70 teams) has increased to the point where often teams with losing records play in them. Also, essentially every one now is "sponsored" by a corporation for advertising purposes. The sponsor's name becomes part of the bowl's name, often resulting in very long, complicated names; in many cases it becomes the only name (the bowl's previous name being eliminated) as with the Peach, Florida Citrus, Tangerine, Music City, Texas, Humanitarian and Hall of Fame Bowls. In other cases the sponsor's name is more obviously featured than the bowl's own. The classic example is the Fiesta Bowl logo; "Tostitos" is in clearly-readable black against a white background, currently double the size of "Fiesta Bowl" which is in black-bordered dark red in a hard-to-read font against a dark background and has been progressively shrinking relative to the sponsor's name—especially in the logo painted on the field.

Bowl Championship Series games
From the 1998 season until the 2005 season, four BCS bowl games determined the national champion on a rotating basis. The other three games consisted of the champions of the 6 major conferences not playing in the championship game, as well as two at-large teams.

A change implemented before the beginning of the 2006 season allowed for the creation of a fifth BCS bowl, the BCS National Championship Game. The BCS National Championship Game is now played at the site of each of the four BCS bowls, but is played as a separate game one week after the regular BCS game. For example, in January 2007, Glendale hosted first the Fiesta Bowl, then the BCS National Championship Game a week later. The sponsor of the host game also sponsors the BCS National Championship Game (e.g., Tostitos will sponsor the game when in Glendale, Allstate will sponsor the game when in New Orleans, and so on).

Other current bowl games
Besides BCS games, there are a number of other postseason invitationals. Generally, two conferences will agree to send teams of a particular standing to a game beforehand. For instance, the Rose Bowl traditionally features the Big Ten and Pac-12 conference champions. Generally, the payout to the participating teams in a Bowl Game is closely correlated to its prestige. For comparison, each of the BCS bowls (including the National Championship) has a payout of $18 million.

Future (proposed) games
(Note the 'LA Christmas Bowl' would be a partial throwback to the one-off 1924 Los Angeles Christmas Festival Bowl Game. )

Both of these proposed games were turned down by the NCAA for 2010. There are currently 35 licensed college bowls, which just about maxes out the possible eligible teams (the four-year average of bowl-eligible squads is 71.8). If one of the current games folds or loses its certification, however, the Cure or LA Christmas Bowls could step in.

The BCS has recently begun discussion of a four team play off model. Teams in the past have been left out of the Championship game causing some backlash toward the BCS. The BCS has also stated that it wishes to remove AQ conferences from its bowl games starting with the 2014 season. Over that past couple of years there have been some incidents in which AQ teams surpassed more worthy teams for bowl spots.

All-Star games

 * Senior Bowl - Mobile, Alabama (1950–present)
 * East-West Shrine Game - Orlando, Florida (1926–present)*Cactus Bowl - Kingsville, Texas (NCAA Division II) (1994–present)
 * '''AstroTurf NFLPA Collegiate Bowl (Formerly Texas vs. the Nation Game) - San Antonio, Texas (2006–present)
 * Casino del Sol College All-Star Game - Tucson, Arizona (2011–present)
 * East Coast Bowl - Petersburg, Virginia (2001–present)
 * Aztec Bowl - Mexico (1950–present)
 * Blue-Gray Football Classic - Montgomery, Alabama (1938–2001, 2003)
 * Hula Bowl - Honolulu, Hawaii (1946–2008)
 * North-South All-Star Classic - Houston, Texas (2007)
 * Las Vegas All-American Classic - Las Vegas, Nevada (2002–2006)
 * Magnolia Gridiron All-Star Classic - Jackson, Mississippi (2005)
 * The Silver and Gold Gridiron Classic - Atlanta, Georgia (2008)
 * Chicago College All-Star Game (College All-Stars vs. NFL champions) - Chicago, IL/Evanston, IL (1934-1976)

Regular season rivalries called bowls

 * Shula Bowl - FIU and Florida Atlantic University
 * Black and Blue Bowl - Memphis and Southern Miss
 * Crab Bowl Classic - Maryland and Navy
 * Egg Bowl - Mississippi and Mississippi State
 * Friends of Coal Bowl - Marshall and West Virginia
 * Iron Bowl - Alabama and Auburn
 * Magnolia Bowl - LSU and Mississippi
 * Palmetto Bowl – Clemson and South Carolina
 * Textile Bowl - Clemson and North Carolina State

Games played outside of the US

 * Bacardi Bowl - seven exhibition games played in Havana, Cuba from 1907-1946
 * Mirage Bowl/Coca-Cola Classic - regular season games played annually in Tokyo, Japan from 1977-1993
 * International Bowl - bowl game played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 2007-2010.

Division I FCS

 * Gridiron Classic - rotating campus sites (2006–2009)

Division II

 * Mineral Water Bowl - Excelsior Springs, Missouri (1948–1951, 1954–1975, 1992–present)
 * Dixie Rotary Bowl - Saint George, Utah (1986–2008)
 * Pioneer Bowl - Various locations (1997–2007, 2009–present)
 * Kanza Bowl - Topeka, Kansas (2009–present)

Division III
Soup Bowl- Greensboro, North Carolina, Started in1994 between cross town rivals Greensboro College and Guilford College
 * Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl - Salem, Virginia (1973–present); Division III national championship game
 * Aztec Bowl - Toluca, Mexico (1950–53, 1955, 1957, 1964–66, 1970–71, 1971–80, 1984, 1986–2007)
 * Knute Rockne Bowl - Atlantic City, New Jersey (1969–1972; 1976–1977)
 * Oyster Bowl – Hampton, Virginia (1999–present); regular season game, formerly a Division I event

NAIA bowl games
There is a large list of bowl games for NAIA available at -- You can help Wikipedia by expanding this section.
 * College Fanz First Down Classic, 2007–present
 * NAIA national football championship (1956–present); previously called Aluminum Bowl (1956), Holiday Bowl (1957–1960), Camellia Bowl (1961–1963), Championship Bowl (1964-1976 Division I), Apple Bowl (1977 Division I), Palm Bowl (1978-1979 Division I), and Championship Bowl (1980-1996 Division I)

Junior College Bowl Games

 * Top of the Mountains Bowl


 * Valley of the Sun Bowl

NCCAA bowl games

 * Victory Bowl, NCCAA Championship Game, 1997–present