Watch Bowl Games
College football fans don't have to worry about missing a single snap of any bowl game, as long as they have the right TV plan. Accomplish this by choosing between cable bundles that include ESPN, FOX and CBS and you'll get 40+ bowl games broadcasting live to your TV and streaming to your smart TV and mobile device, in full HD clarity.
2020-21 Bowl Games
2020 has been hard on everyone, including college football. Yes, some bowl games have been cancelled and you won't get the full slate of 40+ games we've all come to expect since 2015.
But you'll still get to watch over 25 bowl games between mid December and mid January, including four games on New Year's Eve, four on New Year's Day, both CFP games and of course the CFP National Championship.
All 2020-21 bowl games air on ESPN or ABC for 2020 except for one; CBS gets the Arizona Bowl.
Bowl Game Scheduling
Bowl games start the last two weeks of December and conclude with the CFP Championship in the second week of January. Games are typically scheduled in order of prominence; the bigger the game, the later it occurs.
For example, the Cotton Bowl is one of the biggest and it airs at the end of December or beginning of January, whereas a smaller, newer bowl like the Boca Raton or Potato Bowl is one of the first to kick off bowl season.
Major, non-playoff bowl games feature very popular teams from the biggest colleges (the ones that didn't quite have the best seasons but still did good) vs smaller or newer bowls that invite mid-tier programs that had OK to great seasons.
Channels Airing Bowl Games
ESPN covers by far the most bowls, broadcasting games on ESPN, ESPN2 and their sister station ABC.
FOX and CBS also air a few bowl games, which you can watch for free with an over-the-air digital antenna if you opt out of a cable plan, or your cable plan only includes ESPN but no local channels. The few bowl games airing on FOX and CBS changes from season to season.
The New Year's Six
Friends and family who love college football can bring in the new year watching top tier matchups featuring the best teams in the country in the Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. All brought to you via ESPN stations through the 2025-26 season. This package is known as 'The New Year's Six' and also includes the CFP National Championship game.
Every year two of these six classic bowl games are designated as College Football Playoff games (CFP for short) using a rotating annual schedule.
The outcome of the two CFP games determine the two teams playing the National Championship Game, which occurs the following week.
The other major bowl games feature teams not in the playoffs that won their conference championships from the Power Five (ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Big 12 and Big Ten), as well as the highest-ranked champions from the 'Group of Five' conferences (American, Conf USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt).