2017–18 NCAA football bowl games

The College Football Playoff system was used to determine a national champion of Division I FBS college football. A 13-member committee of experts ranked the top 25 teams in the nation after each of the last seven weeks of the 2017 season. The top four teams in the final ranking played a single-elimination semifinal round, with the winners advancing to the National Championship game.

The semifinal games were the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. Both were played on New Year's Day, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of six bowls, commonly referred to as the CFP New Year's Six bowl games. Their winners advanced to the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 8, 2018.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, site of the National Championship game

On April 11, 2016, the NCAA announced a freeze on new bowl games until after the 2019 season. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, the NCAA had to lower its postseason eligibility criteria repeatedly (2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013), eventually allowing teams with losing seasons (5–7) to participate in bowls due to there being not enough bowl-eligible teams, while also having to allow teams from the same conference to meet in the 2015 Arizona Bowl due to the lack of eligible teams to meet its other tie-ins.[6][7][8] For the 2017–18 bowl season, 62% of the 130 teams playing in Division I FBS were deemed eligible to participate in a bowl game, with 60% actually receiving invites to fill the 78 available slots.

For the 2017–18 bowl season, changes from the prior season's bowl games include the relocation of the Miami Beach Bowl to Frisco, Texas as the Frisco Bowl, and the discontinuation of the Poinsettia Bowl. The Russel Athletic Bowl was renamed the Camping World Bowl under a new sponsorship, and after going without a sponsor for two years, the St. Petersburg Bowl was renamed the Gasparilla Bowl (a name that pays homage to Tampa Bay's Gasparilla Pirate Festival).

The FCS has one bowl game; they also have a championship bracket that began on November 25 and ended on January 6.

On December 3, 2017, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced their final team rankings for the year.[9]

In the fourth year of the College Football Playoff era, this was the first time that two of the four semifinalists were from the same conference (Georgia and Alabama of the SEC).

Three bowls featured two conference champions playing against each other—the Dollar General Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic, and Rose Bowl. Rankings are per the above CFP standings.

Conference	Champion	W–L	Rank	Bowl game
ACC	Clemson Tigers	12–1	1	Sugar Bowl
American	UCF Knights	12–0	12	Peach Bowl
Big Ten	Ohio State Buckeyes	11–2	5	Cotton Bowl Classic
Big 12	Oklahoma Sooners	12–1	2	Rose Bowl
C-USA	Florida Atlantic Owls	10–3	—	Boca Raton Bowl
MAC	Toledo Rockets	11–2	—	Dollar General Bowl
Mountain West	Boise State Broncos	10–3	25	Las Vegas Bowl
Pac-12	USC Trojans	11–2	8	Cotton Bowl Classic
SEC	Georgia Bulldogs	12–1	3	Rose Bowl
Sun Belt	Appalachian State Mountaineers	8–4	—	Dollar General Bowl
	Troy Trojans	10–2	—	New Orleans Bowl

denotes a conference that named co-champions

• American (7): Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, South Florida, Temple, UCF
• ACC (10): Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
• Big Ten (8): Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin
• Big 12 (8): Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia
• C-USA (10): FIU, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Southern Miss, UAB, UTSA, Western Kentucky
• Independent (2): Army, Notre Dame
• MAC (7): Akron, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
• Mountain West (6): Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State, Wyoming
• Pac-12 (9): Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State
• SEC (9): Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M
• Sun Belt (5): Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia State, New Mexico State, Troy

Number of teams going to bowl games: 78

Number of bowl-eligible teams: 81

In mid-December multiple media sources reported that Florida State might not have met its bowl eligibility requirements. The team had a record of 6–6, with one of the wins – their 77–6 victory over Delaware State – against an FCS team. For such a game to count towards bowl eligibility, the FCS opponent must have used at least 90 percent of its allotted scholarships, and it was not clear that Delaware State had done so.[10] But a few days later the Florida State administration issued a statement saying that Delaware State did in fact meet that threshold, once non-athletic scholarship funds were factored in.[11]

As there are more bowl-eligible teams than bowl berths, three bowl-eligible teams did not receive a bowl berth:

• Buffalo (6–6)
• UTSA (6–5)
• Western Michigan (6–6)

• American (5): Cincinnati, Connecticut, East Carolina, Tulane, Tulsa
• ACC (4): Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
• Big Ten (6): Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rutgers
• Big 12 (2): Baylor, Kansas
• C-USA (4): Charlotte, Old Dominion, Rice, UTEP
• Independent (2): BYU, Massachusetts
• MAC (5): Ball State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH)
• Mountain West (6): Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV
• Pac-12 (3): California, Colorado, Oregon State
• SEC (5): Arkansas, Florida, Ole Miss,[lower-alpha 2] Tennessee, Vanderbilt
• Sun Belt (7): Coastal Carolina,[lower-alpha 3] Georgia Southern, Idaho, Louisiana–Lafayette, Louisiana–Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State

Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 49

#CFP Rankings.