In current climate, bowls are rejected by teams with losing records
As bowl game matchups were announced Dec. 7, an unusual situation unfolded. The Birmingham Bowl, in all its college football glory, couldn’t find a second suitor to play in its contest.
After three bowl-eligible teams opted not to participate in postseason games, the event turned to 5-7 schools — those just across the usual cutline. What couldn’t have been predicted is that it would need to extend eight invitations before finding an interested party.
All said and done, Georgia Southern will line up across from another Sun Belt program, Appalachian State (5-7), on Dec. 29. The affairs that led to this conclusion, though, have more widely ranging consequences, beyond putting a 4-8 Florida within striking distance of postseason play.
The 2025 bowl cycle was perhaps the most disjointed yet. Notre Dame turning down a bowl game after falling below Miami and missing the College Football Playoff drew the most attention, but a number of others followed suit.
“It was the right decision for this team at this moment. I’m positive of that,” Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua said about the Irish ending the season abruptly. “[The team] didn’t feel it was right for this team to make the decision to go out there and not be that full team that has been so close together.”
With college football’s schedule continuing to shift and the transfer portal opening on Jan. 2, keeping a roster together is a daunting task. In the past, bowl games signified the crowning achievement of a successful season, and athletes would only skip participating if they were trying to freeze their draft stock. Protecting value, however, has expanded to those seeking to transfer in the coming weeks, elbowing more players to sit out. Rather than playing with a thin — and, thus, more injury-prone — roster, then, schools close shop.
Notre Dame wasn’t alone in sitting. After Iowa State and Kansas State each lost coaches to other jobs or retirement, both schools opted out. Birmingham’s situation followed, as the bowl ladder saw the schools that would’ve played in lower-ranking bowls moving up to fill the spots of 10-2 Notre Dame and 8-4 Iowa State.
December roster turnover is especially prominent among schools that lose their coaches before bowl games, which is a timeline issue of its own. Florida fired Billy Napier on Oct. 19 to give it more time to vet the coaching market. Athletic director Scott Stricklin hired Tulane coach Jon Sumrall a day after the regular season ended, allowing him to still coach the Green Wave through their conference championship and into the CFP.
But as Penn State hired Iowa State’s Matt Campbell last week, he departed to steady the Nittany Lions’ 134th-ranked recruiting class, which featured only two commits and trailed multiple FCS schools, per 247Sports recruiting rankings. Subsequently, the Cyclones, without a coach, wrapped up the year.
“I don’t disagree with the people that say our schedule is a mess,” Florida’s Stricklin said at Sumrall’s introductory news conference. “You have to somehow figure out a way to take player acquisition away from the season.”
This year, three 5-7 teams will compete in the postseason. Even then, seven teams with losing records reportedly declined to participate in Birmingham, including Florida State, UCF and Auburn, according to On3’s Brett McMurphy.
Under the sheer size of that fallout, only five more teams sat between Florida and a bowl berth, which would seem to be a foolhardy suggestion after the season the Gators had. But in college football’s evolving landscape, soon enough, bowling may be primarily reserved for those whose campaigns didn’t go as planned.