Bowl season will begin in December along with the Army-Navy game

This year’s bowl season begins on the second Saturday in December – a spot on the calendar usually reserved for the Army-Navy game, which will be the first time two bowls have been played while maintaining its traditional 3 pm ET timeslot on CBS.

The postseason lineup begins Dec. 14 with the Cricket Celebration Bowl (noon/ABC) and includes the 12-team College Football Playoff and the New Year’s Six Bowl on Jan. 20 with the national championship game.

The Camellia Bowl on ESPN will follow the Dec. 14 Army-Navy game at 9 pm ET. It was an expected change to the 33-game bowl season calendar that helps make room for the 12-team CFP that begins this fall.

“Obviously the expanded College Football Playoff is going to add another layer of excitement to our postseason,” said bowl season executive director Nick Carparelli, “with opening-round games being played on Saturdays that traditionally have been reserved for the first day. In bowl season, we have some games the week before that. Had to move, especially the two games on Dec. 14, which were scheduled around the Army-Navy game, it was very important to us that we secure that time slot while also providing a full day of college football, which I think our fans will enjoy. .”

Carparelli said there are only 11 games before Christmas this year, compared to 18 before the holiday last season.

“Every year is different because the calendar always has quirks,” Carparelli said. “… If you’re a purist and you don’t necessarily like the fact that games start earlier, the idea that there are more games after Christmas might help balance that out.”

The busiest day of the bowl season will be Dec. 28, with eight games, including the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Dre and Snoop on Gin & Juice. The “unique sponsorship agreement” was announced by the Arizona Bowl in May and will continue to feature teams from the Mountain West Conference and Mid-American Conference. It was the first alcohol partner as a presenting sponsor in an NCAA bowl game.

The Hawaii Bowl (8 p.m. ESPN) returns to its traditional spot on Christmas Eve and has three games on Dec. 26 – the Detroit Bowl (2 p.m. ET/ESPN), the Guaranteed Rate Bowl (5:30 p.m. ESPN), and the 68 Ventures Bowl (9 p.m. ET/ESPN). pm ET/ESPN).

There will be five games on New Year’s Eve, including the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (7:30 pm ET/ESPN), which is hosting a CFP quarterfinal game this year. New Year’s Eve bowl games begin at noon on ESPN with the ReliaQuest Bowl, followed by the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl at 2 p.m. on CBS, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl at 3 p.m. on ABC and the Texas Bowl at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.

New Year’s Day is reserved for the CFP quarterfinal triple-header, starting with the Chick-fil-A Pitch Bowl (1 p.m. ET/ESPN), the Rose Bowl game presented by Prudential (5 p.m. ET/ESPN), and the Allstate Sugar Bowl (8:45 pm/ESPN).

Bowl games are lined up with an open window until Jan. 4, when the CFP semifinals begin Jan. 9 with the Capital One Orange Bowl (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN). The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN) will determine the final opponent for the national championship game on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

The time and date of the DirecTV Holiday Bowl will be announced later.

The bowl season concludes on Jan. 30 with the East-West Shrine Bowl on NFL Network at 8 pm ET. The Celebration Bowl features the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Southwestern Athletic Conference in the national championship for historically black colleges and universities at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.