College football bowl game season is upon us

Welcome to college football bowl game season. Traditionally, the day after Christmas is the kickoff to a slate of football games that match teams with comparable records. “Bowl season” stretches over about a fortnight.

The landscape has continued to change in 2024, requiring that 11 rather minor bowl games be played prior to Christmas…in order to fit them all into the television schedule.  

The expanded College Football Playoffs (CFP) system has mucked things up even more in 2024, claiming four of the major bowl game sites for quarterfinals contests.

Let’s go there first. On New Year’s Eve (Tuesday, Dec. 31), Boise State and Penn State square off at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.

On New Year’s Day (Wednesday, Jan. 1): Big Ten Conference foes Oregon and Ohio State tangle at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.; Texas and Arizona State do battle at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta; and Notre Dame and Georgia go head-to-head at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

 

(CFP semifinal sites are Jan. 9 at the Orange Bowl in Miami and Jan. 10 in the Cotton Bowl at Arlington, Texas. The championship game is set for Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home field of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.)

Adding to the confusion swirling around this year’s college football bowl picture is the “transfer portal” that allows athletes to move about like free agents. Marshall University notified officials that it had to back out of an Independence Bowl appearance, because it didn’t have enough qualified players left to field a competitive team.

So now, Louisiana Tech has replaced Marshall as the opponent for Army in the game that will be played Saturday, Dec. 28, in Shreveport, La.

It seems that more and more premier players are opting out of participating in bowl games, to avoid risk of an injury that could be damaging to their future careers as professional players.

The proverbial coaching carousel has sidelined a few head coaches who won’t be at the helm of their bowl-bound teams. One of note is Mack Brown, who was swept out as head coach of the University of North Carolina, effective at the end of the regular season.

Freddie Kitchens (shown below), who was North Carolina’s run game coordinator and tight ends coach, will be in charge when UNC plays the University of Connecticut on Saturday, Dec. 28, at the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, played at Boston’s historic Fenway Park.

 

(Incoming Tar Heel coach Bill Belichick has announced that he is retaining Kitchens on the coaching staff for the 2025 season.)

UConn compiled an impressive 8-4 record in 2024 as an independent, while Carolina was 6-6 as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The game should be competitive with the Tar Heels picked as slight favorites.

 

Another important bowl game being played on Saturday, Dec. 28, is the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Military Stadium in Annapolis, Md., which pits North Carolina State v. East Carolina. It’s a curious pairing of in-state rivals being played about 310 miles north of Greenville, N.C. The stadium seats about 34,000 people, so it will be interesting to see what kind of crowd shows up.

 

N.C. State, also of the ACC, finished at 6-6, while East Carolina of the American Athletic Conference posted a 7-5 record. Oddsmakers give the Wolfpack of N.C. State a one-touchdown edge over the ECU Pirates.

 

Some fans think the Military Bowl committee should have looked ahead. The Pirates travel to Raleigh on Aug. 30 to play the Wolfpack in the 2025 season opener for both teams.

Duke University (9-3) of the ACC is set to play Ole Miss (9-3) of the Southeastern Conference at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday, Jan. 2. Ole Miss is a double-digit favorite, because Duke’s star quarterback Maalik Murphy entered the transfer portal and has committed to Oregon State.

The Duke Blue Devils are expected to start backup quarterback Henry Belin IV.