2019–20 NCAA football bowl games

The College Football Playoff system is used to determine a national championship 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 regular season. The top four teams in the final ranking were seeded in a single-elimination semifinal round, with the winners advancing to the National Championship game.

The semifinal games for the 2019–20 season were the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl. Both were played on December 28, 2019, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of six bowls, commonly referred to as the New Year's Six bowl games. The winners advanced to the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, scheduled for January 13, 2020.

Mercedes-Benz Superdome, site of the National Championship game

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For the 2019–20 bowl season, the Dollar General Bowl changed sponsors to become the LendingTree Bowl.[3] The Cure Bowl, previously held at Camping World Stadium, changed venues to Exploria Stadium—both are in Orlando, Florida.[4] As the First Responder Bowl's usual venue of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas was unavailable due to a scheduling conflict with the 2020 NHL Winter Classic, the 2019 edition was played at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in nearby University Park, Texas.[5]

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The FCS has one bowl game. They also had a championship bracket that culminated in the 2020 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game.

Organizers renamed the East–West Shrine Game to East–West Shrine Bowl.[8] The Hula Bowl returned for its first playing since January 2008.[9]

On December 8, 2019, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced its final team rankings for the year.[10] Two of the four semifinalists – Clemson and Oklahoma – had also been semifinalists the previous season. This was the sixth year of the College Football Playoff era, and the first year that Alabama was not in the semifinals.

Two bowls featured a matchup of conference champions—the Fiesta Bowl and the Peach Bowl. Rankings are per the above CFP standings.

Generally, a team must have at least six wins to be considered bowl eligible, with at least five of those wins being against FBS opponents. The College Football Playoff semi-final games are determined based on the top four seeds in the playoff committee's final rankings. The remainder of the bowl eligible teams are selected by each respective bowl based on conference tie-ins, order of selection, match-up considerations, and other factors.

However, six teams (Army, East Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, Liberty and Virginia Tech) needed to win seven games to become bowl eligible for the 2019–20 season – Army and Hawaii because their regular season consisted of 13 games, and the other four because they defeated two FCS teams during the season. At season's end, Florida, Hawaii, Liberty, and Virginia Tech were bowl-eligible with at least seven wins each, while Army and East Carolina did not reach the seven win threshold.

• ACC (10): Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
• American (7): Cincinnati, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Temple, Tulane, UCF
• Big Ten (9): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
• Big 12 (6): Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas
• C-USA (8): Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Western Kentucky
• MAC (8): Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
• Mountain West (7): Air Force, Boise State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State, Wyoming
• Pac-12 (7): Arizona State, California, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Washington State, USC
• SEC (9): Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas A&M
• Sun Belt (5): Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana
• Independent (3): BYU, Liberty, Notre Dame

Number of bowl-eligible teams: 79
Number of bowl berths available: 78

As there were more bowl-eligible teams than there were bowl berths available, one team that was bowl-eligible (Toledo, 6–6) did not receive an invitation.[11]

• ACC (4): Duke, Georgia Tech, NC State, Syracuse
• American (5): East Carolina, Houston, South Florida, Tulsa, UConn
• Big Ten (5): Maryland, Northwestern, Nebraska, Purdue, Rutgers
• Big 12 (4): Kansas, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia
• C-USA (6): Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, UTEP, UTSA
• MAC (4): Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois
• Mountain West (5): Colorado State, Fresno State, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV
• Pac-12 (5): Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford,[lower-alpha 4] UCLA
• SEC (5): Arkansas, Missouri,[lower-alpha 5] Ole Miss, South Carolina, Vanderbilt
• Sun Belt (5): Coastal Carolina, Louisiana–Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy
• Independent (3): Army, New Mexico State, UMass

Number of bowl-ineligible teams: 51

CFP Rankings.

All times Eastern.