| Season: | 2017 |
| Regular Season: | – |
| Number Of Bowls: | 41 |
| All Star Games: | 4 |
| Championship Bowl: | 2018 College Football Playoff NationalChampionship |
| Championship Location: | Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta |
| Champions: | Alabama Crimson Tide,UCF Knights (co champions) |
| Bowl Challenge Cup: | Big Ten |
| Conference1: | SEC |
| Conference1 Teams: | 11 |
| Conference1 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference1 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference1 Ap Poll: | 5 |
| Conference2: | ACC |
| Conference2 Teams: | 10 |
| Conference2 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference2 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference2 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference3: | Conference USA |
| Conference3 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference3 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference3 Losses: | 5 |
| Conference3 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference4: | Pac-12 |
| Conference4 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference4 Wins: | 1 |
| Conference4 Losses: | 8 |
| Conference4 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference5: | Big Ten |
| Conference5 Teams: | 8 |
| Conference5 Wins: | 7 |
| Conference5 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference5 Ap Poll: | 5 |
| Conference6: | Big 12 |
| Conference6 Teams: | 8 |
| Conference6 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference6 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference6 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference7: | American |
| Conference7 Teams: | 7 |
| Conference7 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference7 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference7 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference8: | Mountain West |
| Conference8 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference8 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference8 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference8 Ap Poll: | 1 |
| Conference9: | MAC |
| Conference9 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference9 Wins: | 1 |
| Conference9 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference9 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference10: | Sun Belt |
| Conference10 Teams: | 5 |
| Conference10 Wins: | 4 |
| Conference10 Losses: | 1 |
| Conference10 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference11: | Independents |
| Conference11 Teams: | 2 |
| Conference11 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference11 Losses: | 0 |
| Conference11 Ap Poll: | 1 |
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.[1]
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.[2] [3] 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.
The schedule for the 2017–18 bowl games is below. All times are EST (UTC−5).[4] [5]
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.
Each of the games in the following table was televised by ESPN.
| Date | Time (EST) | Game | Site | Teams | Affiliations | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 29 | 8:30 p.m. | Cotton Bowl Classic | AT&T Stadium Arlington, Texas | No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes (11–2) No. 8 USC Trojans (11–2) | Big Ten Pac-12 | Ohio State 24 USC 7 | ||
| Dec. 30 | 4:00 p.m. | Fiesta Bowl | University of Phoenix Stadium Glendale, Arizona | No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions (10–2) No. 11 Washington Huskies (10–2) | Big Ten Pac-12 | Penn State 35 Washington 28 | ||
| 8:00 p.m. | Orange Bowl | Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida | No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers (12–1) No. 10 Miami (FL) Hurricanes (10–2) | Big Ten ACC | Wisconsin 34 Miami (FL) 24 | |||
| Jan. 1 | 12:30 p.m. | Peach Bowl | Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta, Georgia | No. 12 UCF Knights (12–0) No. 7 Auburn Tigers (10–3) | American SEC | UCF 34 Auburn 27 | ||
| 5:00 p.m. | Rose Bowl (Playoff Semifinal Game) | Rose Bowl Pasadena, California | No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (12–1) No. 2 Oklahoma Sooners (12–1) | SEC Big 12 | Georgia 54 Oklahoma 48 (2OT) | |||
| 8:45 p.m. | Sugar Bowl (Playoff Semifinal Game) | Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana | style=white-space:nowrap | No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (11–1) No. 1 Clemson Tigers (12–1) | SEC ACC | style=white-space:nowrap | Alabama 24 Clemson 6 | |
| Jan. 8 | 8:00 p.m. | College Football Playoff National Championship (Rose Bowl Winner vs. Sugar Bowl Winner) | Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta, Georgia | No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (12–1) No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (13–1) | SEC | style=white-space:nowrap | Alabama 26 Georgia 23 (OT) |
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.[6] [7] [8] 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).
The FCS has one bowl game; they also have a championship bracket that began on November 25 and ended on January 6.
| Date | Time (EST) | Game | Site | Television | Participants | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 14 | Tropical Bowl | Daytona Stadium Daytona Beach, Florida | American Team National Team | American 29 National 20 | ||||
| Jan. 20 | 3:00 p.m. | East–West Shrine Game | Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, Florida | NFL Network | East Team West Team | West 14 East 10 | ||
| 5:00 p.m. | NFLPA Collegiate Bowl | Rose Bowl Pasadena, California | FS1 | American Team National Team | National 23 American 0 | |||
| style=white-space:norwrap | Jan. 27 | 2:30 p.m. | Senior Bowl | Ladd–Peebles Stadium Mobile, Alabama | NFL Network | North Team South Team | South 45 North 16 |
On December 3, 2017, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced their final team rankings for the year.[9]
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).
| Rank | Team | W–L | Conference and standing | Bowl game | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC champions | Sugar Bowl (CFP semifinal) | ||||
| Big 12 champions | Rose Bowl (CFP semifinal) | ||||
| SEC champions | Rose Bowl (CFP semifinal) | ||||
| SEC West Division co-champions | Sugar Bowl (CFP semifinal) | ||||
| Big Ten champions | Cotton Bowl Classic (NY6) | ||||
| Big Ten West Division champions | Orange Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| SEC West Division co-champions | Peach Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| Pac-12 champions | Cotton Bowl Classic (NY6) | ||||
| Big Ten East Division second place (tie) | Fiesta Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| ACC Coastal Division champions | Orange Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| Pac-12 North Division co-champions | Fiesta Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| AAC champions | Peach Bowl (NY6) | ||||
| Pac-12 North Division co-champions | Alamo Bowl | ||||
| Independent | Citrus Bowl | ||||
| Big 12 second place | Alamo Bowl | ||||
| Big Ten East Division second place (tie) | Holiday Bowl | ||||
| SEC West Division third place | Citrus Bowl | ||||
| Pac-12 North Division third place | Holiday Bowl | ||||
| Big 12 third place | Camping World Bowl | ||||
| AAC West Division champions | Liberty Bowl | ||||
| Big Ten West Division second place | Music City Bowl | ||||
| ACC Coastal Division second place | Camping World Bowl | ||||
| SEC West Division fourth place (tie) | TaxSlayer Bowl | ||||
| ACC Atlantic Division second place | Sun Bowl | ||||
| MWC champions | Las Vegas Bowl |
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.
| Conference | Champion | W–L | Rank | Bowl game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Bowl | ||||
| 12 | Peach Bowl | |||
| Cotton Bowl Classic | ||||
| Rose Bowl | ||||
| — | Boca Raton Bowl | |||
| — | Dollar General Bowl | |||
| 25 | Las Vegas Bowl | |||
| Cotton Bowl Classic | ||||
| Rose Bowl | ||||
| — | Dollar General Bowl | |||
| — | New Orleans Bowl |
Number of bowl berths available: 78
Number of bowl-eligible teams: 81
As there are more bowl-eligible teams than bowl berths, three bowl-eligible teams did not receive a bowl berth:
Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 49
| Game | Date | Matchup | Network | Viewers (millions) | TV Rating[11] | Location | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rose Bowl (semifinal) | January 1, 2018, 5:00 ET |
| 54 |
| 48 | ESPN | 26.91 | 13.7 | Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA |
| Sugar Bowl (semifinal) | January 1, 2018, 8:45 ET |
| 24 |
| 6 | 21.47 | 11.4 | Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA | |
| National Championship | January 8, 2018, 8:00 ET |
| 26 |
| 23 | 28.44 | 15.6 | Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA | |