| Season: | 2023 |
| All Star Games: | 5 |
| Championship Bowl: | 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship |
| Championship Location: | NRG Stadium Houston, Texas |
| Champions: | Michigan Wolverines |
| Bowl Challenge Cup: | Big Ten |
| Conference1: | ACC |
| Conference1 Teams: | 11 |
| Conference1 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference1 Losses: | 6 |
| Conference1 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference2: | American |
| Conference2 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference2 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference2 Losses: | 3 |
| Conference2 Ap Poll: | 1 |
| Conference3: | Big 12 |
| Conference3 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference3 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference3 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference3 Ap Poll: | 5 |
| Conference4: | Big Ten |
| Conference4 Teams: | 10 |
| Conference4 Wins: | 6 |
| Conference4 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference4 Ap Poll: | 4 |
| Conference5: | C–USA |
| Conference5 Teams: | 4 |
| Conference5 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference5 Losses: | 2 |
| Conference5 Ap Poll: | 1 |
| Conference6: | MAC |
| Conference6 Teams: | 6 |
| Conference6 Wins: | 2 |
| Conference6 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference6 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference7: | Mountain West |
| Conference7 Teams: | 7 |
| Conference7 Wins: | 3 |
| Conference7 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference7 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference8: | Pac-12 |
| Conference8 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference8 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference8 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference8 Ap Poll: | 3 |
| Conference9: | SEC |
| Conference9 Teams: | 9 |
| Conference9 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference9 Losses: | 4 |
| Conference9 Ap Poll: | 6 |
| Conference10: | Sun Belt |
| Conference10 Teams: | 12 |
| Conference10 Wins: | 5 |
| Conference10 Losses: | 7 |
| Conference10 Ap Poll: | 0 |
| Conference11: | Independent |
| Conference11 Teams: | 1 |
| Conference11 Wins: | 1 |
| Conference11 Losses: | 0 |
| Conference11 Ap Poll: | 1 |
The 2023–24 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games in the United States, primarily played to complete the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. Team-competitive bowl games in FBS began on December 16 and concluded with the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship on January 8, 2024, which was won by the Michigan Wolverines. The all-star portion began on January 13 and concluded on February 24.
The schedule for the 2023–24 bowl games, announced in May 2023, is below. All times listed using EST (UTC−5).
See main article: 2023–24 College Football Playoff.
The College Football Playoff system is used to determine a national championship of Division I FBS college football. A 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 are then seeded in a single-elimination semifinal round, with the winners advanced to the National Championship game. This playoff was the last to use a four-team bracket, with the College Football Playoff set to expand to 12 teams in 2024.[1]
The semifinal games for the 2023 season were the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. Both were played on January 1, 2024, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of two bowls, commonly referred to as the New Year's Six bowl games. The winners advanced to the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship that was contested on January 8, 2024, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
On December 3, 2023, the College Football Playoff committee announced that it had selected Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Alabama to participate in the 2023–24 College Football Playoff. The committee's decision to select the Southeastern Conference's (SEC) Alabama (12–1) instead of the Atlantic Coast Conference's (ACC) Florida State (13–0), who became the first undefeated Power Five conference team to not qualify for the playoff, received intense criticism from fans, writers, and commentators. Specifically, several of these viewers accused the committee of corruption, bias, and favoritism towards the SEC.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The CFP committee chair and others defended the selection of Alabama, which defeated five ranked teams (compared to Florida State's three) during the season, including No. 1 ranked Georgia in the last game of the SEC season, saying that Alabama was currently the better team overall.[9] [10] [11] [12]
Each of the games in the following table was televised by ESPN.| Date | Time (EST) | Game | Site | Teams | Affiliations | Results | Attendance | U.SViewers(Millions) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dec.29 | 8:00p.m. | Cotton Bowl Classic | AT&T Stadium Arlington, Texas | No. 9 Missouri Tigers (10–2) No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes (11–1) | SEC Big Ten | Missouri 14 Ohio State 3 | 70,114 | 9.72 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec.30 | 12:00p.m. | Peach Bowl | Mercedes-Benz Stadium Atlanta, Georgia | No. 11 Ole Miss Rebels (10–2) No. 10 Penn State Nittany Lions (10–2) | SEC Big Ten | Ole Miss 38 Penn State 25 | 71,230 | 7.76 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4:00p.m. | Orange Bowl | Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida | No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs (12–1) No. 5 Florida State Seminoles (13–0) | SEC ACC | Georgia 63 Florida State 3 | 63,324 | 10.39 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jan.1 | 1:00p.m. | Fiesta Bowl | State Farm Stadium Glendale, Arizona | No. 8 Oregon Ducks (11–2) No. 23 Liberty Flames (13–0) | Pac-12 C–USA | Oregon 45 Liberty 6 | 47,769 | 4.59 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5:00p.m. | Rose Bowl (Playoff semifinal game) | Rose Bowl Pasadena, California | No. 1 Michigan Wolverines (13–0) No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (12–1) | Big Ten SEC | 96,371 | 26.10---------------27.75Simulcast|-|8:45p.m.|Sugar Bowl (Playoff semifinal game)|Caesars Superdome New Orleans, Louisiana|No. 2 Washington Huskies (13–0) No. 3 Texas Longhorns (12–1)|Pac-12 Big 12||68,791|17.67---------------18.74Simulcast|-|rowspan=1|Jan.8|7:30p.m.|College Football Playoff National Championship |NRG Stadium Houston, Texas|No. 1 Michigan Wolverines (14–0) No. 2 Washington Huskies (14–0)|Big Ten Pac-12|Michigan 34 Washington 13|72,808|24.28--------------- 25.03Simulcast|} Semifinal teams were chosen by the selection committee. Semifinal winners advanced to the championship game. Non-CFP bowl gamesSeveral bowl name changes were made, as compared to the prior season's bowl games:
Rankings are per the final CFP rankings that were released on December 3. Division I FCS bowl gameThe Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) has one bowl game, played between HBCUs, which acts as a de facto Black college football national championship. The FCS also has a postseason bracket tournament that culminates in the 2024 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game. Division II bowl gamesSee also: 2023 NCAA Division II football season. Division III bowl gamesSee also: 2023 NCAA Division III football season. All-star gamesEach of these games featured college seniors, or players whose college football eligibility was ending, who were individually invited by game organizers. These games were scheduled to follow the team-competitive bowls, to allow players selected from bowl teams to participate. Such all-star games may include some players from non-FBS programs. The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, which debuted in 2012 and was played 12 times through January 2023, was discontinued. The East–West Shrine Bowl relocated from Nevada (where its prior two editions had been played) to Texas.
Team selectionsSee main article: Bowl eligibility and Bids to college bowl games. CFP top 25 standings and bowl gamesSee main article: 2023–24 College Football Playoff. See also: 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings. The College Football Playoff (CFP) selection committee announced its final team rankings for the season on December 3, 2023. It was the 10th season of the CFP era, and the last one with a four-team playoff. This was the first time that an undefeated Power Five conference champion (Florida State) was left out of the semifinals.[23]
Bowl-eligible teamsGenerally, 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 semifinal 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, matchup considerations, and other factors.
Number of bowl berths available: 82 Bowl-ineligible teams
Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 51 Conference summaries
Boise State, UNLV, and San José State all finished with a 6–2 conference record, creating a three-way tie. Since all three teams did not face each other during the season, and none of the teams were in the College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings before the conference championship game, the three-way tie was broken by a composite average of computer rankings from Anderson & Hester, Colley Matrix, Massey and Wolfe. UNLV finished with the best average rankings at 44.5, while Boise State came in second at 55.75 and San José State third at 58.5. Therefore, the Broncos and Rebels secured their spots in the MW Championship. UNLV and Boise State did not play each other during the regular season. The Rebels' superior average computer ranking earned them the right to host the title game.[25] Conference champions' bowl gamesRanks are per the final CFP rankings, released on December 3, 2023, with win–loss records at that time.
CFP College Football Playoff participant Conference performance in bowl gamesSee also: Bowl Challenge Cup. [26]Note: The only independent team that played in an FBS bowl game was Notre Dame. References] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||