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The 2019–20 NCAA football games were a series of college football bowl games played to complete the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The games began on December 20, 2019, and, aside from the all-star games that followed, ended with the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship played on January 13, 2020.

The total of 40 team-competitive bowls in FBS, including the national championship game, was unchanged from the previous season. With the first staging of the Hula Bowl since January 2008, the number of all-star games increased from three to four.

Schedule

The schedule for the 2019–20 bowl games is below. All times are EST (UTC−5). The schedule consists of 40 bowl games in FBS (the New Year's Six bowl games, 33 additional bowl games, and the National Championship game) and one bowl game in FCS (the Celebration Bowl). Division II bowls and Division III bowls are not included here. After the National Championship game, there are additionally four all-star games scheduled.

College Football Playoff and Championship Game

The College Football Playoff system is used to determine a national championship 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 regular season. The top four teams in the final ranking were seeded in a single-elimination semifinal round, with the winners advancing to the National Championship game.

The semifinal games for the 2019–20 season were the Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. Both were played on December 28, 2019, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of six bowls, commonly referred to as the New Year's Six bowl games. The winners advanced to the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, scheduled for January 13, 2020.

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

Non CFP bowl games

For the 2019–20 bowl season, the Dollar General Bowl changed sponsors to become the LendingTree Bowl. The Cure Bowl, previously held at Camping World Stadium, changed venues to Exploria Stadium—both are in Orlando, Florida. As the First Responder Bowl's usual venue of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas was unavailable due to a scheduling conflict with the 2020 NHL Winter Classic, the 2019 edition was played at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in nearby University Park, Texas.

FCS bowl game

The FCS has one bowl game. They also had a championship bracket that culminated in the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game.

All-star games

Organizers renamed the East–West Shrine Game to East–West Shrine Bowl. The Hula Bowl returned for its first playing since January 2008.

Team selections

CFP top 25 standings and bowl games

On December 8, 2019, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced its final team rankings for the year. Two of the four semifinalists – Clemson and Oklahoma – had also been semifinalists the previous season. This was the sixth year of the College Football Playoff era, and the first year that Alabama was not in the semifinals.

Conference champions' bowl games

Two bowls featured a matchup of conference champions—the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl. Rankings are per the above CFP standings.

Bowl-eligible teams

Generally, a team must have at least six wins to be considered bowl eligible, with at least five of those wins being against FBS opponents. The College Football Playoff semi-final games are determined based on the top four seeds in the playoff committee's final rankings. The remainder of the bowl eligible teams are selected by each respective bowl based on conference tie-ins, order of selection, match-up considerations, and other factors.

However, six teams (Army, East Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, Liberty and Virginia Tech) needed to win seven games to become bowl eligible for the 2019–20 season – Army and Hawaii because their regular season consisted of 13 games, and the other four because they defeated two FCS teams during the season. At season's end, Florida, Hawaii, Liberty, and Virginia Tech were bowl-eligible with at least seven wins each, while Army and East Carolina did not reach the seven win threshold.

• ACC (10): Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
• American (7): Cincinnati, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Temple, Tulane, UCF
• Big Ten (9): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
• Big 12 (6): Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas
• C-USA (8): Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Western Kentucky
• MAC (8): Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
• Mountain West (7): Air Force, Boise State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State, Wyoming
• Pac-12 (7): Arizona State, California, Oregon, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State
• SEC (9): Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas A&M
• Sun Belt (5): Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana
• Independent (3): BYU, Liberty, Notre Dame

Number of bowl berths available: 78
Number of bowl-eligible teams: 79

Bowl-eligible teams that did not receive a berth

As there were more bowl-eligible teams than there were bowl berths available, one team that was bowl-eligible (Toledo, 6–6) did not receive an invitation.

Bowl-ineligible teams

• ACC (4): Duke, Georgia Tech, NC State, Syracuse
• American (5): East Carolina, Houston, South Florida, Tulsa, UConn
• Big Ten (5): Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Rutgers
• Big 12 (4): Kansas, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia
• C-USA (6): Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, UTEP, UTSA
• MAC (4): Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois
• Mountain West (5): Colorado State, Fresno State, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV
• Pac-12 (5): Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA
• SEC (5): Arkansas, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
• Sun Belt (5): Coastal Carolina, Louisiana–Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy
• Independent (3): Army, New Mexico State, UMass

Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 51

Television ratings

Non-CFP bowl games

CFP Rankings.

College Football Playoff

All times Eastern.

Notes

1. 40 FBS bowl games, including the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, and 1 FCS bowl game.
2. Dates exclude all-star games.
3. Win–loss records are prior to the bowl game being played.
4. Conferences listed reflect those of the actual participants.
5. Stanford finished their season bowl-ineligible for the first time since 2008.
6. In January 2019, Missouri's football program received a one-season postseason ban, due to misconduct by a tutor in completing coursework for student-athletes.

References

1. ^ "2019-20 college football bowl schedule, games, dates, times, TV channels". CBSSports.com. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
2. ^ "2019-20 College Football bowl schedule". The Tennessean. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
3. "Mobile's college bowl game renamed LendingTree Bowl". WALA-TV. November 15, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
4. McElwain, John (May 1, 2019). "2019 Cure Bowl to be Played at Orlando City Stadium". sunbeltsports.org. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
5. Baby, Ben (May 23, 2019). "Conflict with Winter Classic forces First Responder Bowl to move from Cotton Bowl to SMU's Ford Stadium". dallasnews.com. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
6. "ESPN Events Reveals 2019-20 Bowl Season Slate". ESPN Events. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
7. "We don't know yet how we're going to start the @CFBONFOX season, but we know how we'll finish it. Dates and kickoff times for the @RedboxBowl and @HolidayBowl pic.twitter.com/iI1210XBwb". @FOXSportsPR. May 29, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
8. "East-West Shrine football announces name change". shrinegame.com (Press release). September 12, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
9. Peterkin, Olivia (October 31, 2019). "HULA BOWL to reboot after 12 years as part of CBS Network partnership". bizjournals.com. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
10. "2019 Rankings". College Football Playoff. December 8, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
11. Buckey, Brian (December 8, 2019). "Toledo football left out of bowl picture". The Blade. Toledo, Ohio. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
12. Fried, Justin (December 1, 2019). "Stanford Football: Cardinal season ends with a whimper and another streak ended". goldengatesports.com. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
13. Myerberg, Paul (January 31, 2019). "NCAA hits Missouri football, other sports with postseason ban for academic misconduct". USA TODAY. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
14. "College Football TV Ratings". Sportsmediawatch.com. Retrieved January 3, 2020.

Further reading

• "2019-20 bowl officiating assignments". footballzebras.com. December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
• Kelly, Doug (ed.). "2019–20 Football Bowl Association Media Guide" (PDF). footballbowlassociation.com. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
• Pazzalia, Casey (December 28, 2019). "College Bowl Game TV Ratings & Attendance". slackiebrown.com. Retrieved December 28, 2019.

• 2019–20 NCAA football bowl games