College Football Bowl Game Schedule

College Football Bowl Game Schedule

Plenty of football to watch on the road to 2019

sports@theeveningtimes.com

Including the College Football Playoff, 41 games will be played, and 80 teams will be involved.

The slate ends with the CFP National Championship on Jan. 7, 2019, which will feature the winners of the pair of semifinal games, Alabama vs. Oklahoma and Clemson vs. Notre Dame.

It’s a college football triple-header today, with a trio of mid-level bowl games on television.

At 12:30 p.m., on ESPN, it’s the Independence Bowl, where the Duke Blue Devils (7-5) will be taking on the Temple Owls (8-4), live from Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Lousiana.

The Blue Devils started the season 4-0 with wins over Army, Northwestern and Baylor in the first three weeks. All three are going to bowl games and the latter two games were on the road. The Blue Devils were ranked entering Week 5 and then got slammed 31-14 by Virginia Tech. After a win over Georgia Tech to go to 5-1, Duke finished the season 2-4, including losses to Clemson and Wake Forest by a combined margin of 94-13 in the last two weeks.

The Owls are coached by Ed Foley, who is making his second appearance as the team’s coach in a bowl game. Geoff Collins was hired by Georgia Tech to replace the departing Paul Johnson. Temple recovered nicely from a 2-3 start to finish the season 6-1. The only loss in the final seven games came in a 52-40 game against UCF. The six wins included victories over Cincinnati and Houston.

Then at 4 p.m., it’s the Pinstripe Bowl also on ESPN), where the Miami Hurricanes will clash with the Wisconsin Badgers.

For a second straight season, Miami (FL) and Wisconsin are meeting in a bowl game, this time in much colder weather in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Dec. 27.

The Badgers (7-5) beat the Hurricanes (7-5) in the Orange Bowl last season after each team lost in its respective conference championship game to fall short of the college football playoff. This year the two teams didn’t reach the expectations they had in the preseason, but there’s plenty of talent on the two rosters that makes this bowl game one to watch.

After beginning the season in the top 10, Miami and Wisconsin each finished an injury-plagued season outside the top 25.

The Badgers and Hurricanes each returned their starting quarterback, but neither is expected to play in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook will not play for a fourth time this season, still dealing with symptoms from a concussion. He played in the regular- season finale against Minnesota, but backup Jack Coan will get the start instead.

For the Hurricanes, coach Mark Richt will continue to roll with redshirt freshman quarterback N’Kosi Perry. Perry took over the full-time starting quarterback job from Malik Rosier in November.

And in the nightcap, it’s the 2018 Texas Bowl, beginning at 8 p.m. on ESPN. This year’s Texas Bowl, which will take place at NRG Stadium in Houston, features Baylor vs. Vanderbilt in a battle of 6-6 teams.

The Baylor Bears were 42 to start the season but needed a last-weekend win against Texas Tech to get bowl eligible. Baylor went 4-5 in the Big 12, beating Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and the Red Raiders. Not really an upset in the bunch there, but it was enough to get the Bears to a bowl game.

Texas Tech missed out on a bowl because of that last game of the season and ended up making a coaching change.

While Baylor had to win its last game of the season to get to a bowl, Vanderbilt had to win its last two games to get to a bowl.

The Commodores beat Ole Miss 36-29 in the penultimate game of the season and then demolished Tennessee 38-13 to get to 6-6. It was a heck of a recovery after a 1-5 stretch in the middle of the season. Four of those losses, however, came against opponents who were ranked in the top 15 at the time.

While not one of the marquee bowl games of the postseason, one of these teams will be able to claim a winning record for the season.

Below is the schedule for this year’s bowl games, including results of games played and remaining bowl games (all times are Central): Saturday, Dec. 15

• Celebration Bowl: North Carolina A& T 24, Alcorn State 22

• New Mexico Bowl: Utah State 52, North Texas 13

• Cure Bowl: Tulane 41, Louisiana-Lafayette 24

• Las Vegas Bowl: Fresno State 31, Arizona State 20

• Camellia Bowl: Georgia Southern 23, Eastern Michigan 21

• New Orleans Bowl: Appalachian State 45, Middle Tennessee 13

• Boca Raton Bowl: UAB 37, Northern Illinois 13 Wednesday, Dec. 19

• Miami Beach Bowl: Ohio 27, San Diego State 0n: San Diego State

• Thursday, Dec. 20 Gasparilla Bowl: Marshall 38, South Florida 20 Friday, Dec. 21

• Bahamas Bowl: FIU 35, Toledo 32

• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: BYU 49, Western Michigan 18 Saturday, Dec. 22

• Birmingham Bowl: Wake Forest 37, Memphis 34

• Armed Forces Bowl: Army 70, Houston 14

• Dollar General Bowl: Troy 42, Buffalo 32

• Hawaii Bowl: Louisiana Tech 31 vs. Hawaii 14 Wednesday, Dec. 26

• First Responder Bowl (12:30 p.m., ESPN): Boston College vs. Boise State — Prediction: Boise State

• Quick Lane Bowl (4:15 p.m., ESPN): Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech — Prediction: Georgia Tech

• Cheez-It Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN): California vs. TCU — Prediction: TCU Thursday, Dec. 27

• Independence Bowl (12:30 p.m., ESPN): Temple vs. Duke — Prediction: Duke

• Pinstripe Bowl (4:15 p.m., ESPN): Miami vs.

Wisconsin — Prediction: Miami

• Texas Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN): Baylor vs.

Vanderbilt — Prediction: Baylor Friday, Dec. 28

• Music City Bowl (12:30 p.m., ESPN): Purdue vs.

Auburn — Prediction: Auburn

• Camping World Bowl (4:15 p.m., ESPN): West Virginia vs. Syracuse — Prediction: Syracuse

• Alamo Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN): Iowa State vs.

Washington State — Prediction: Washington State Saturday, Dec. 29

• Peach Bowl (11 a.m., ESPN): Florida vs.

Michigan — Prediction: Michigan

• Belk Bowl (11 a.m., ABC): South Carolina vs.

Virginia — Prediction: Virginia

• Arizona Bowl (12:15 p.m., CBS Sports Network): Arkansas State vs. Nevada — Prediction: Nevada

• Cotton Bowl (3 p.m., ESPN): Clemson vs. Notre Dame; College Football Playoff semifinal — Prediction: Clemson

• Orange Bowl (7 p.m., ESPN): Alabama vs.

Oklahoma; College Football Playoff semifinal — Prediction: Alabama Monday, Dec. 31

• Military Bowl (11:30 a.m., ESPN): Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech — Prediction: Virginia Tech

• Sun Bowl (1 p.m., CBS): Stanford vs.

Pittsburgh — Prediction: Stanford

• Redbox Bowl (2 p.m., FOX): Michigan State vs.

Oregon — Prediction: Oregon

• Liberty Bowl (2:45 p.m., ESPN): Missouri vs.

Oklahoma State — Prediction: Missouri

• Holiday Bowl (6 p.m., FS1): Northwestern vs.

Utah — Prediction: Utah

• Gator Bowl (6:30 p.m., ESPN): N.C. State vs.

Texas A& M — Prediction: Texas A& M Tuesday, Jan. 1

• Outback Bowl (11:30 a.m., ESPN2): Mississippi State vs. Iowa — Prediction: Iowa

• Citrus Bowl (noon, ABC): Kentucky vs. Penn State — Prediction: Penn State

• Fiesta Bowl (noon, ESPN): LSU vs. UCF — Prediction: LSU

• Rose Bowl (4 p.m., ESPN): Washington vs.

Ohio State — Prediction: Ohio State

• Sugar Bowl (7:45 p.m., ESPN): Texas vs. Georgia — Prediction: Georgia Monday, Jan. 7

• College Football Playoff National Championship (7 p.m., ESPN).

By the Times Sports Staff