Nearly every bowl has tie-ins with various conferences, but when ESPN owns 17 games and broadcasting rights to 13 others, affiliations can become murky as they make trades for matchups and ratings. And for the 2026-2027 bowl season, expect things to become even more convoluted, thanks to the rebirth of the Pac-12 Conference (with enough blame to go to the CFP as well).
Because the College Football Playoff hasn’t figured out what the next playoff model looks like, all bowl tie-ins are staying the same
for this season rather than being redone. That’s all fine, except the Pac-12 has decided to exist again. Bowl tie-ins will still be more of the legacy variety, meaning bowls with a Pac affiliation will prioritize the former teams (if they provide better matchups), but the new teams exist as well. And it doesn’t seem as simple as new Pac-12 teams playing in Mountain West bowls, because the MW has new teams too. Not to mention, there is one fewer bowl for Pac and MW teams with the LA Bowl’s discontinuation, although the rebirth of the Poinsettia Bowl will help this a bit by pitting a new and an old Pac-12 team against one another.
While all bowl teams should be able to find homes, it won’t be as straightforward as in previous seasons. Taking a look at College Football News’ list of bowl tie-ins, the problem can start to be understood.
Mountain West Bowls
- Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl vs MAC
- Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs MAC
- Sheraton Hawaii Bowl vs CUSA
- Isleta New Mexico Bowl vs CUSA
Pac-12 Bowls
- Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego vs a
Mountain Westformer Pac-12 team. - Holiday Bowl vs ACC
- Las Vegas Bowl vs Big Ten (most likely)
- Puerto Rico Bowl vs Group of Six
- Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl vs Big 12
- Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl vs ACC
- Valero Alamo Bowl vs Big 12
Based on conference affiliations alone, there are four spots in the Mountain West bowls, and then eight in the Pac-12 (with the Poinsettia having two spots) for a total of twelve spots for upwards of twenty-eight teams. Now, not every team will make a bowl game, and North Dakota State’s ability to play in a bowl game has not been decided on, although it should be assumed will play in one. Also, some of the old Pac-12 teams, like Oregon, will qualify for a bigger game than those listed above. Still, it might be a tough fit.
Looking at last year as an example will illustrate this further,
Mountain West Bowls
- Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Fresno State
- Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Utah State, Washington State (traded in)
- Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Hawaii, Cal (traded in)
- Isleta New Mexico Bowl San Diego State
- Frisco Bowl UNLV
- Rate Bowl New Mexico
Pac-12 Bowls
- LA Bowl (Poinsettia Bowl will substitute nicely) Boise State, Washington
- Holiday Bowl vs Arizona
- Las Vegas Bowl vs Big Ten Utah
- Puerto Rico Bowl vs Group of Six (new)
- Radiance Technologies Independence (traded out)
- Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl Arizona State
- Valero Alamo Bowl USC
Last season saw fourteen teams from this group factor into bowl games. A few trades occurred, and two of these games featured four teams to help the cause, but two additional games had to be brought in to fit all the teams. The new Puerto Rico Bowl will help things out as well, but it still might be hard to get all the pieces to fit.
To help guide what things will look like going forward, we can group all the teams into a few different lists. Save the disagreements for later in the summer, as this is just to crunch numbers at this point.
Bowl Teams
- Arizona
- Arizona State
- Boise State
- Fresno State
- Hawaii
- New Mexico
- North Dakota State
- Oregon
- San Diego State
- Texas State
- USC
- Utah
- Utah State
- Washington
Likely Bowl Teams
- Cal
- Colorado
- San Jose State
- UCLA
- Washington State
Likely non-Bowl Teams
- Air Force
- Colorado State
- Nevada
- NIU
- Oregon State
- Stanford
- UTEP
- Wyoming
That is fourteen teams that are very likely to be in bowl games, but let’s assume Oregon for sure, and likely another team advances to the CFP, bringing the total to twelve. However, to be safe, if two of the likely teams make a bowl game, then the number is back to fourteen.
A few 2026 bowl projections have already been put out, and while all of these are educated guesses at best, it helps flush out some lists.
CBS Sports takes a stab at the 41 bowl games, with ones we are concerned about below. And for fun, see if you can find which team plays in two games in a typo in the actual article.
- Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii
- Armed Forces: North Dakota State
- Potato Bowl: San Diego State
- Frisco Bowl: North Texas
- New Mexico Bowl: Boise State
- Arizona Bowl: Fresno State
- Poinsettia Bowl: New Mexico
- Texas Bowl: Utah
- Independence Bowl: Arizona
- Sun Bowl: Utah State
- Holiday Bowl: Arizona State
- Alamo Bowl: Washington
- Las Vegas Bowl: USC
This puts thirteen teams into games, and UNLV is an odd omission, so let’s call it fourteen. This was also before the Poinsettia news, which can open up another spot. But to get all the teams into bowl games, three additional bowl games are needed.
This is less rambling about whether all bowl-eligible teams will play in bowl games and more an exercise to illustrate that bowl tie-ins make less sense the tighter people try to hold on to them. And in stating they are continuing affiliations for another year, it might actually be a year where more trades and random placements happen than in previous years, thanks to conference realignment out west.
Hopefully, this all leads to bowl games that are based more on merit and matchups and less on conference affiliations. That is, unless bowl games become less important than they already are with an expanding playoff and increased player opt-outs. But for this year, your favorite team may play in the Poinsettia as a conference champ or a 6-6 team. They may play in the Potato Bowl or get traded to the Rate Bowl. Perhaps they play in the brand new Puerto Rico, or they might not be allowed to play in a bowl game at all, even if they eclipse 6 wins.
Clear as mud? Welcome to the list of bowl tie-ins for 2026.
