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The 2017–18 NCAA football bowl games was a series of college football bowl games which completed the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 16, 2017, and aside from the all-star games ended with the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship, which was played on January 8, 2018.

The total of 40 team-competitive bowls in FBS, including the national championship game, was one less than the previous year, with the folding of the Poinsettia Bowl. To fill the 78 available bowl slots, a total of 15 teams (19% of all participants) with non-winning (6–6) seasons participated in bowl games. This marks only the second time in seven years that no teams with losing seasons (6–7 or 5–7) had to be invited to fill available bowl berths.

Schedule

The schedule for the 2017–18 bowl games is below. All times are EST (UTC−5).

College Football Playoff and Championship Game

The College Football Playoff system was used to determine a national champion of Division I FBS college football. A 13-member committee of experts ranked the top 25 teams in the nation after each of the last seven weeks of the 2017 season. The top four teams in the final ranking played a single-elimination semifinal round, with the winners advancing to the National Championship game.

The semifinal games were the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. Both were played on New Year's Day, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of six bowls, commonly referred to as the CFP New Year's Six bowl games. Their winners advanced to the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 8, 2018.

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Each of the games in the following table was televised by ESPN.

Non-CFP bowl games

On April 11, 2016, the NCAA announced a freeze on new bowl games until after the 2019 season. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, the NCAA had to lower its postseason eligibility criteria repeatedly (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013), eventually allowing teams with losing seasons (5–7) to participate in bowls due to there being not enough bowl-eligible teams, while also having to allow teams from the same conference to meet in the 2015 Arizona Bowl due to the lack of eligible teams to meet its other tie-ins. For the 2017–18 bowl season, 62% of the 130 teams playing in Division I FBS were deemed eligible to participate in a bowl game, with 60% actually receiving invites to fill the 78 available slots.

For the 2017–18 bowl season, changes from the prior season's bowl games include the relocation of the Miami Beach Bowl to Frisco, Texas as the Frisco Bowl, and the discontinuation of the Poinsettia Bowl. The Russel Athletic Bowl was renamed the Camping World Bowl under a new sponsorship, and after going without a sponsor for two years, the St. Petersburg Bowl was renamed the Gasparilla Bowl (a name that pays homage to Tampa Bay's Gasparilla Pirate Festival).

FCS bowl game

The FCS has one bowl game; they also have a championship bracket that began on November 25 and ended on January 6.

All-star games

Selection of the teams

CFP top 25 teams

On December 3, 2017, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced their final team rankings for the year.

In the fourth year of the College Football Playoff era, this was the first time that two of the four semifinalists were from the same conference (Georgia and Alabama of the SEC).

Conference champions' bowl games

Three bowls featured two conference champions playing against each other—the Dollar General Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic, and Rose Bowl. Rankings are per the above CFP standings.

† denotes a conference that named co-champions

Bowl-eligible teams

• ACC (10): Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami (FL), NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
• American (7): Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, South Florida, Temple, UCF
• Big Ten (8): Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
• Big 12 (8): Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia
• C-USA (10): FIU, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Southern Miss, UAB, UTSA, Western Kentucky
• MAC (7): Akron, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
• Mountain West (6): Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, Wyoming
• Pac-12 (9): Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State
• SEC (9): Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M
• Sun Belt (5): Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia State, New Mexico State, Troy
• Independent (2): Army, Notre Dame

Number of bowl berths available: 78
Number of bowl-eligible teams: 81

Bowl-eligible teams that did not receive a berth

As there are more bowl-eligible teams than bowl berths, three bowl-eligible teams did not receive a bowl berth:

• Buffalo (6–6)
• UTSA (6–5)
• Western Michigan (6–6)

Bowl-ineligible teams

• ACC (4): Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
• American (5): Cincinnati, East Carolina, Tulane, Tulsa, UConn
• Big Ten (6): Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rutgers
• Big 12 (2): Baylor, Kansas
• C-USA (4): Charlotte, Old Dominion, Rice, UTEP
• MAC (5): Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH)
• Mountain West (6): Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV
• Pac-12 (3): California, Colorado, Oregon State
• SEC (5): Arkansas, Florida, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
• Sun Belt (7): Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Idaho, Louisiana, Louisiana–Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State
• Independent (2): BYU, UMass

Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 49

Television viewers and ratings

Non-CFP bowl games

#CFP Rankings.

College Football Playoff

Notes

1. 40 FBS bowl games, including the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, and 1 FCS bowl game.
2. In mid-December, multiple media sources reported that Florida State might not have met its bowl eligibility requirements. The team had a record of 6–6, with one of the wins – their 77–6 victory over Delaware State – against an FCS team. For such a game to count towards bowl eligibility, the FCS opponent must have used at least 90 percent of its allotted scholarships, and it was not clear that Delaware State had done so. But a few days later the Florida State administration issued a statement saying that Delaware State did in fact meet that threshold, once non-athletic scholarship funds were factored in.
3. Despite winning six games for a .500 (6–6) regular-season record, Ole Miss is bowl-ineligible due to a self-imposed bowl ban.
4. Coastal Carolina is in the second year of its two-year transition from FCS to FBS and is bowl-ineligible due to NCAA regulations, but would have been ineligible based on record in any case.

References

1. Dinich, Heather (June 28, 2016). "College Football Playoff tweaks dates in upcoming seasons". ESPN. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
2. "2017–18 college football bowl schedule, dates, times, TV channels". CBS Sports. May 10, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
3. "2017–18 College Football Playoff and bowl schedule". ESPN. December 3, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
4. "The full bowl schedule is here now". SB Nation. December 3, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
5. Patterson, Chip (December 3, 2017). "2017 Bowl Games: Announcements, schedule, College Football Playoff matchups". CBS Sports. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
6. "Nebraska, Minnesota, San Jose St. taking 5–7 records to bowl". NCAA.com. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
7. "NCAA approves three-year halt to new bowl games". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
8. "NCAA moratorium means no bowl game for Myrtle Beach, for now". Myrtle Beach Online. Associated Press. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
9. "Selection Committee Rankings: Final Top 25 Rankings" (PDF). College Football Playoff. December 3, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
10. Rollins, Khadrice (December 21, 2017). "Florida State Is Not Bowl Eligible but Will Still Play in Independence Bowl". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
11. Knight, Joey (December 22, 2017). "FSU Says Reddit Is Wrong; Seminoles Are Bowl Eligible After All". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
12. "Ole Miss announces self-imposed bowl ban for 2017 season". SI.com. February 22, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
13. "College Football TV Ratings". SportsMediaWatch.com. Retrieved December 6, 2018.
14. "COLLEGE FOOTBALL TV RATINGS". SportsMediaWatch.com. Retrieved January 5, 2018.

Further reading

• Schlabach, Mark (January 10, 2018). "Alabama, Georgia lead this year's All-Bowl team". ESPN. Retrieved January 10, 2019.

• 2017–18 NCAA football bowl games