| Season: | 2013 |
| Regular Season: | August 29, 2013 – December 14, 2013 |
| Number Of Bowls: | 35 |
| All Star Games: | 3 |
| Bowl Start: | December 21, 2013 |
| Bowl End: | January 25, 2014 |
| Championship Bowl: | 2014 BCS National Championship |
| Championship Location: | Rose Bowl Pasadena, California |
| Champions: | Florida State |
| Bowl Challenge Cup: | SEC |
| Conference1: | ACC |
| Conference1 Teams: | 11 |
| Conference1 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference1 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference1 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference2: | SEC |
| Conference2 Teams: | 10 |
| Conference2 Wins: | 7 |
| Conference2 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference2 Ap Poll: | 7 |
| Conference3: | Pac-12 |
| Conference3 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference3 Wins: | 6 |
| Conference3 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference3 Ap Poll: | 6 |
| Conference4: | Big Ten |
| Conference4 Teams: | 7 |
| Conference4 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference4 Losses: | 5 |
| Conference4 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference5: | Big 12 |
| Conference5 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference5 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference5 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference5 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference6: | Conference USA |
| Conference6 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference6 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference6 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference6 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference7: | Mountain West |
| Conference7 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference7 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference7 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference7 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference8: | American |
| Conference8 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference8 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference8 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference8 Ap Poll: | 1 |
| Conference9: | MAC |
| Conference9 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference9 Wins: | 0 |
| Conference9 Losses: | 5 |
| Conference9 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference10: | Independents |
| Conference10 Teams: | 3 |
| Conference10 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference10 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference10 Ap Poll: | 1 |
| Conference11: | Sun Belt |
| Conference11 Teams: | 2 |
| Conference11 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference11 Losses: | 0 |
| Conference11 Ap Poll: | 0 |
The 2013–14 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2013 NCAA Division I FBS football season and included 35 team-competitive games and three all-star games (down from four as the Texas vs the Nation game was cancelled for this season). The games began on Saturday, December 21, 2013, and, aside from the all-star games, ended with the 2014 BCS National Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena that was played on January 6, 2014.
The total of 35 team-competitive bowls was unchanged from the previous year. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, this was the eighth consecutive year that teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games. To fill the 70 available bowl slots, a total of eight teams (11% of all participants) with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—all eight had a .500 (6–6) season.
The 2013–14 bowl season served as the last for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) format. Starting in 2014–15, a new system, the College Football Playoff, was used.
The 2013–2014 bowl game schedule, with 70 teams to compete in 35 bowls, was announced in May 2013.[1] All bowl game participants were selected by December 8, 2013.
Note: All times are EST (UTC−5). Rankings from final BCS poll.
| Date | Game | Site | Television | Teams | Affiliations | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 1 | Rose Bowl | Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA 5:00 pm | ESPN |
| Big Ten Pac-12 | Michigan State 24 Stanford 20 |
| Fiesta Bowl | University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, AZ 8:30 pm |
| American Big 12 | UCF 52 Baylor 42 | ||
| Jan. 2 | Sugar Bowl | Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, LA 8:30 pm |
| Big 12 SEC | Oklahoma 45 Alabama 31 | |
| Jan. 3 | Orange Bowl | Sun Life Stadium Miami Gardens, FL 8:30 pm |
| ACC Big Ten | Clemson 40 Ohio State 35 | |
| Jan. 6 | BCS National Championship Game | Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA 8:30 pm |
| ACC SEC | Florida State 34 Auburn 31 |
| Date | Game | Site | Television | Participants | Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| space:nowrap | Jan. 11 | Medal of Honor Bowl | Johnson Hagood Stadium Charleston, SC 2:00 pm | NBCSN | style=white-space:nowrap | American Team vs. National Team | American 20 National 3 | |
| style=white-space:nowrap rowspan=2 | Jan. 18 | East-West Shrine Game | Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, FL 4:00 pm | NFL Network | East Team vs. West Team | East 23 West 13 | ||
| NFLPA Collegiate Bowl | StubHub Center Carson, CA 6:00 pm | ESPN2 | American Team vs. National Team | National 31 American 17 | ||||
| style=white-space:nowrap | Jan. 25 | Senior Bowl | Ladd–Peebles Stadium Mobile, AL 4:00 pm | NFL Network | style=white-space:nowrap | North Team vs. South Team | South 20 North 10 |
See also: Bowl Challenge Cup.
| Conference | Total games | Wins | Losses | Pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Belt * | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| SEC | 10 | 7 | 3 | |
| Independents | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Pac-12 | 9 | 6 | 3 | |
| Big 12 | 6 | 3 | 3 | |
| C-USA | 6 | 3 | 3 | |
| MW | 6 | 3 | 3 | |
| ACC | 11 | 5 | 6 | |
| American | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| Big Ten | 7 | 2 | 5 | |
| MAC | 5 | 0 | 5 | |
See also: Bowl Championship Series, Automatic bids to college bowl games and Bowl eligibility. To play in a bowl game, a college football team must qualify to do so according to the NCAA rules of bowl eligibility.
As in the 2010, 2011, and 2012 seasons, initial bowl eligibility would go to teams with no lower than a non-losing record (6–6) for the season. On August 2, 2012, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a significant change to the process to determine bowl eligible teams, going so far as to potentially allow 5–7 teams to go to a bowl, in case there were not enough regular bowl-eligible teams to fill every game.
The easing of the bowl eligibility rules resulted in a record number of teams, 79 versus the 71 or 72 of the past few seasons, being deemed eligible for selection to a 2013–14 bowl game. The easing of rules to include teams with losing records and teams from the lower Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), will carry extra importance starting in the 2014–15 bowl season, when the number of bowl games will increase to 39—requiring 78 eligible teams.
If a bowl has one or more conferences/teams unable to meet their contractual commitments and there are no available bowl-eligible teams, the open spots can be filled – by the particular bowl's sponsoring agencies – as follows:[9]
Under a rule change approved by the NCAA Legislative Council on May 3, 2013, teams that enter a conference championship game with a 6–6 record, with no more than one win over an FCS school, are bowl-eligible regardless of the result of the championship game, without the team having to seek an NCAA waiver.[11]
Ten teams were selected for the Bowl Championship Series:
| Rank | Team | Conference and standing | Bowl game | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ACC champions | National Championship Game | ||
| 2 | SEC champions | National Championship Game | ||
| 3 | SEC Western Division co-champions | Sugar Bowl | ||
| 4 | Big Ten champions | Rose Bowl | ||
| 5 | Pac-12 champions | Rose Bowl | ||
| 6 | Big 12 champions | Fiesta Bowl | ||
| 7 | Big Ten Leaders Division champions | Orange Bowl | ||
| 8 | SEC Eastern Division champions | Cotton Bowl Classic | ||
| 9 | SEC Eastern Division second place | Capital One Bowl | ||
| 10 | Pac-12 North Division co-champions | Alamo Bowl | ||
| 11 | Big 12 second place (tie) | Sugar Bowl | ||
| 12 | ACC Atlantic Division second place | Orange Bowl | ||
| 13 | Big 12 second place (tie) | Cotton Bowl Classic | ||
| 14 | Pac-12 South Division champions | Holiday Bowl | ||
| 15 | American champions | Fiesta Bowl | ||
| 16 | SEC Western Division third place | Outback Bowl | ||
| 17 | Pac-12 South Division second place (tie) | Sun Bowl | ||
| 18 | American second place | Russell Athletic Bowl | ||
| 19 | Big Ten Leaders Division second place | Capital One Bowl | ||
| 20 | MWC champions | Las Vegas Bowl | ||
| 21 | SEC Western Division fourth place | Chick-fil-A Bowl | ||
| 22 | SEC Eastern Division third place | Gator Bowl | ||
| 23 | MAC West Division champions | Poinsettia Bowl | ||
| 24 | ACC Coastal Division Champions | Chick-fil-A Bowl | ||
| 25 | Pac-12 South Division second place (tie) | Las Vegas Bowl |
Number of bowl berths available: 70
Number of teams bowl eligible: 79
The easing of the bowl eligibility rules, to include teams with non-losing (6–6) or even losing records, resulted in a record number of teams – 79 versus the 71 or 72 of the past few seasons – being deemed eligible for selection to a 2013–14 bowl game.
Nine eligible teams did not receive a bowl invitation, including two with winning records: Western Kentucky (8–4), Toledo (7–5), Central Michigan (6–6), Florida Atlantic (6–6), Louisiana-Monroe (6–6), San Jose State (6–6), South Alabama (6–6), Texas State (6–6), and Troy (6–6).
Number of teams bowl ineligible: 46
Starting in 2014–15, a new system, the College Football Playoff, has been used to determine the national champion.
The new format uses a committee of 13 people to select and seed the top 12 teams.[12] These teams are paired in six of the ten oldest bowl games—the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Peach and Fiesta bowls. These games have been marketed as the "New Year's Six",[13] with three bowls played daily, typically on consecutive days around New Year's Day.
Within this New Year's Six format, the top four seeded teams are paired in two national semi-finals, followed by a national championship game played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the semifinals, at a neutral site.[14] The two semi-finals will rotate each year, first at the Rose and Sugar bowls, then the Orange and Fiesta bowls, then the Cotton and Peach bowls.
In addition, the number of bowls expanded to 39 games in 2014–15, with four new games – the Camellia Bowl, scheduled for the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama pitting the Sun Belt against the MAC; the Bahamas Bowl, played in Nassau between the MAC and the American Athletic Conference; the Miami Beach Bowl, played in Marlins Park with an AAC team as host; and the Boca Raton Bowl, played at FAU Stadium, with a third MAC team taking on a team from Conference USA. The increase to 76 teams (38 bowls + national championship played by semi-final bowl winners) in bowl play required the easing of bowl eligibility rules, allowing teams with losing records or teams in the lower FCS to be deemed eligible for invitation to a bowl game.