Bids to college bowl games

The teams that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision earn the right to compete in a series of post-season games called bowl games. As of 2024, there are 42 bowl games, and all are contractually obligated to offer bids to specific conferences, a situation known as a “tie-in”. The “top” six bowl games in the nation select their teams as part of the College Football Playoff (CFP), which was put into place for a minimum of 12 years, beginning with the 2014 season. Prior to 2014, the top five games in the country were chosen under the system known as the Bowl Championship Series. The bowls outside of the CFP have individual contracts with the conferences to offer preferential bids to teams from those conferences. As long as teams are bowl eligible, they may be selected by these bowls to meet these contracts.