Bowl Selection Process - Southeastern Conference (2024)

FAQs

How does the bowl selection process work? ›

Bowl games that have a contract with a conference must select a team with at least seven wins if one is available. Any bowl berths that become eligible when a conference fails to meet its contracted tie-ins must first be filled by any eligible seven-win teams before any remaining FBS 6–6 teams can be accommodated.

Even if Cal loses to UCLA there is teeny-tiny chance that Cal could play in a bowl with a 5-7 record. That would happen only if there are not enough teams with six wins to fill all the bowl vacancies.

In order for a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision to become eligible to play in a bowl game, it needs to win at least six games with a minimum . 500 winning percentage. Bowl Season requires a total of 82 teams to fill the current 41 bowl games scheduled for the postseason.

The CFP Selection Committee ranks the top 25 teams and selects the four teams to participate in the semifinal games (Fiesta and Peach). Then, after the contract bowls (Sugar, Rose and Orange) are filled based on conference agreements, the Committee will assign teams to fill the remaining access bowls (Cotton).

Generally, any team with an even or winning record (i.e. six wins in the twelve game regular season) qualified for a bowl game. There are currently 41 bowl games, so this leaves 82 spots for teams. If more teams have six wins than available spots, unfortunately some schools will be left out.

Football Bowl Subdivision newcomers James Madison and Jacksonville State along with five-win Minnesota are bound for bowls because of a shortage of eligible teams. Those three teams round out the 82 available spots because only 79 teams achieved the six wins necessary for bowl eligibility.

In four of the last five years, a 2-4 or 2-5 team has made the playoffs.

SEC announces 2023 college football postseason bowl destinations for nine teams.

But it wasn't about athletic prowess this time around. According to CBS Sports, Minnesota was picked for the Quick Lane Bowl because of all NCAA teams that have won five games this season, the Gophers have the best Academic Progress Rate (APR).

Because there were not enough bowl-eligible teams, the Dukes and Gameco*cks are bowl-bound in their second year reclassifying from FCS to FBS. There ended up being 79 bowl-eligible teams to fill 82 spots.

What bowls can ACC teams go to? ›

The Big 12 has 9 bowl tie-ins, one of those being a NY6 bowl. The Big 12 traditionally gets an automatic spot in the Sugar Bowl versus the SEC, but with that being a semifinal this year, the Big 12 champ will get a spot in the Fiesta, Peach, or Cotton bowl (if the champion does not make the 4-team CFP).

The Rose Bowl Game was first played in 1902 as the Tournament East–West football game, and has been played annually since 1916. Since 1945, it has been the highest attended college football bowl game.

Thanks to academics, five-win Minnesota Gophers awarded a bowl spot. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Despite a loss to Wisconsin leaving them with just five wins this season, the Minnesota Gophers football team has secured a postseason appearance, thanks to their academic achievements.

The New Year's Six consists of the six major bowl games in the highest level (Division I FBS) that occur around New Year's Day: the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. These are six of the oldest bowl games.

The four teams which win their respective divisions in each conference earn spots, while the remaining three remaining places are given to the non-division winning teams who have the best records in their respective conferences, these are known as "wild-card spots".

Each season, 12 teams are selected by the committee, including the top four seeds that participate in the Playoffs, while the remaining eight spots belong to teams within a certain criterion.

Using the final CFP rankings, the selection committee seeds and pairs the top four teams and determines the participants for the other four non-playoff New Year's Six bowls that are not hosting the semifinals that year. These four non-playoff bowls are also referred to as the Selection Committee bowl games.

The winner of the entire Group of 5 conferences (Conference-USA, MAC, Mountain West, American, Sun Belt) is also given a spot. The rest of the spots are determined based on conference tie-ins, overall rankings, and a variety of other factors (similar to how the CFP chooses the top 25 list).