The bowl system around which the college football postseason has been built for decades has encountered a bit of a problem this year.
It’s having trouble finding teams that want to participate.
On Sunday, Dec. 7, one day after conference championship weekend officially wrapped up, the College Football Playoff revealed its 12-team field while the non-playoff bowl games began announcing what teams had accepted invitations.
The matchups have been set for all the bowl games — all of them but one, that is.
The Birmingham Bowl is still looking for a team to play Georgia Southern in the game on Monday, Dec. 29 in Birmingham, Alabama, with a number of potential suitors having turned down the bowl’s overtures.
Several bowl-eligible teams have turned down the opportunity to continue their seasons. Shortly after being surprisingly left out of the playoff field, Notre Dame opted against taking part in a bowl game. Iowa State and Kansas State, both of which are undergoing coaching changes, have also declined the chance to play in a bowl, with the Big 12 fining each school $500,000 for their decisions.
Shortly after the inception of the four-team playoff during the 2014 season, bowl games have taken on a decreased importance and are now widely viewed as glorified exhibitions. Previously, their diminished role was largely limited to high-profile, NFL-bound players opting out of the games to focus on their draft preparation and avoid the risk of a serious injury.
Now, that trend is extending to teams choosing not to play, often due to player defections to the transfer portal, a coaching change, some combination of both of those factors or, as Notre Dame showed Sunday, a lack of a desire to play in a game with no path to the national championship.
Here’s a look at the teams that have turned down bowl invitations this season:
Which college football teams declined to play in a bowl?
With every bowl eligible team with a 6-6 record already accounted for, the Birmingham Bowl has had to turn to 5-7 teams to play against Georgia Southern.
Unfortunately for the bowl and its representatives, several of those teams with losing records have said no to the opportunity.
At least seven teams that finished 5-7 have declined a bowl bid, per college football insider Brett McMurphy. That group includes:
- Florida State
- Auburn
- UCF
- Baylor
- Kansas
- Rutgers
- Temple
Teams opting out of bowl games
Three bowl-eligible teams — Notre Dame, Iowa State and Kansas State — have opted against playing in a bowl game this season.
All three teams finished the season with at least a 6-6 record, with Iowa State at 8-4, Kansas State at 6-6 and Notre Dame at 10-2.
The Cyclones and Wildcats have lost their coaches in the past week, with Matt Campbell leaving Iowa State for Penn State and Kansas State’s Chris Klieman retiring. The Fighting Irish chose not to play in a bowl game after being left out of the College Football Playoff. Coach Marcus Freeman’s team dropped a spot to No. 11 in the final playoff selection committee rankings, making it the first team to miss the 12-team cut (No. 20 Tulane and No. 24 James Madison automatically made it as conference champions).
Can 5-7 teams play in bowl games?
If there aren’t enough teams with a 6-6 record or better to fill out all of the available bowls, then those games turn to teams with 5-7 records to try to complete their matchups.
The order in which 5-7 teams are given opportunities to accept bowl invitations is based on a program’s Academic Progress Report (APR) score. This year, Auburn, Florida State and Rice had the highest APR scores of 5-7 squads. Florida State and Auburn have reportedly turned down bowl bids, while Rice has accepted a spot in the Armed Forces Bowl, where it will take on Texas State.
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