Girish Mahajan (Editor)

2014–15 NCAA football bowl games

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Season
  
2014

All-star games
  
3

Number of bowls
  
39

Regular season
  
August 30, 2014 – December 13, 2014

Bowl games
  
December 20, 2014 – January 12, 2015

National Championship
  
2015 College Football Playoffs National Championship

The 2014–15 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They completed the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 39 team-competitive games and four all-star games. The games began on December 20, 2014 and, aside from the all-star games, ended with the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship which was played on January 12, 2015.

Contents

A record total of 39 postseason games were played, including the national championship game. To fill the 76 available bowl slots, a total of 13 teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—12 with a .500 (6-6) season and one sub-.500 team (6-7).

Schedule

The schedule for the 2014–15 bowl games is below. All times are EST (UTC−5). The rankings used are the CFP rankings.

Playoff

The 2014–15 postseason was the first to feature a College Football Playoff (CFP) to determine a national champion of Division I FBS college football. Four teams were selected by a 13-member committee to participate in a single-elimination tournament, whose semifinals were held at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl as part of a yearly rotation of six bowls. Their winners advanced to the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

CFP bowl games and Championship Game

Starting with the 2014–15 postseason, six College Football Playoff (CFP) bowl games will host two semifinal playoff games on a rotating basis—the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. The games will be played on two days, on or around January 1. The winners of the two semifinal games will advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship. These six bowl games are also known as the New Year's Six. All games will be televised by ESPN and broadcast on the radio by ESPN Radio.

Non-CFP bowl games

For the 2014–15 postseason, four new bowl games were added — the Camellia Bowl, Miami Beach Bowl, Boca Raton Bowl, and Bahamas Bowl — bringing the total number of bowl games to 39. Additionally, the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl was replaced by the Quick Lane Bowl.

CFP top 25 teams

On December 7, 2014, the 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee announced their final team rankings for the year.

Bowl-eligible teams

  • American (6): Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Temple, UCF
  • ACC (11): Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami (FL), NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech
  • Big 12 (7): Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, West Virginia
  • Big Ten (10): Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin
  • Conference USA (7): Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State, Rice, UAB, UTEP, Western Kentucky
  • Independents (3): BYU, Navy, Notre Dame
  • MAC (6): Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
  • Mountain West (7): Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State
  • Pac-12 (8): Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington
  • SEC (12): Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M
  • Sun Belt (4): Arkansas State, Louisiana–Lafayette, South Alabama, Texas State

    • Number of bowl berths available: 76
    Number of bowl-eligible teams: 81

    Bowl-eligible teams that did not receive a berth

    Ohio, Texas State, Temple, UAB, Middle Tennessee

    Bowl-ineligible teams

  • American (5): Connecticut, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, USF
  • ACC (3): Syracuse, Virginia, Wake Forest
  • Big Ten (4): Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue
  • Big 12 (3): Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech
  • Conference USA (6): FIU, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Old Dominion†, Southern Miss, UTSA
  • Independents (1): Army
  • MAC (7): Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Massachusetts, Miami (OH)
  • Mountain West (5): Hawai'i, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming
  • Pac 12 (4): California, Colorado, Oregon State, Washington State
  • SEC (2): Kentucky, Vanderbilt
  • Sun Belt (7): Appalachian State†, Georgia Southern†, Georgia State, Idaho‡, Louisiana–Monroe, New Mexico State, Troy

    • Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 47

    † – Appalachian State (7–5), Georgia Southern (9–3, Sun Belt champions), and Old Dominion (6–6) were conditionally eligible based on win/loss record. However, under FCS-to-FBS transition rules, they are not eligible because enough teams qualified under normal circumstances.

    ‡ – Idaho was ineligible for postseason play due to an insufficient Academic Progress Rate. However, the Vandals would not have been eligible without the ban, as they finished with a 1-10 record.

    References

    2014–15 NCAA football bowl games Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA