Skip to footer

College bowl games 2015: Who to watch

College bowl games 2015: For football fans, the end-of-season college bowl games are the culmination of a fall's worth of football. Out of 40 games, here's a look at a few.

|
Andres Leighton/AP
New Mexico quarterback Lamar Jordan (13) approaches the end zone to score a touchdown against the defense of Colorado State defensive back DeAndre Elliott during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015.

College football’s "second season" gets underway Saturday at noon Eastern with the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl between Alcorn State and North Carolina A&T at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

It’s the first of 40 bowl games between Dec. 19 and Jan. 2. Now, you can debate the worthiness of some teams with losing records (Minnesota, Nebraska, and San Jose State) receiving bowl bids this year and the fact that other teams will have home field advantage (Navy, New Mexico) or practically home field advantage (Auburn, NC State, Florida, USC, Texas Tech, TCU, Arizona State, and Arkansas) when they play this holiday season. Or the one bowl game (Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Dec. 29) that will feature teams (Colorado State and Nevada) from the same conference (Mountain West).

But the players, students, and alumni of all 80 schools are looking forward to taking part.

You know all about Clemson, Michigan State, Alabama, and Oklahoma competing for the national championship, starting on New Year's Eve. But for the other 36 teams, the postseason is a chance to further develop younger players and showcase the university for football recruits and potential donors.

Among some of the games coming up Saturday and the rest of this month, the Gildan New Mexico Bowl will pit the University of New Mexico, playing on their home field, against the University of Arizona at 2 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN.

The Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl features neighboring schools from Utah who are fierce football rivals. Brigham Young University and the University of Utah are both 9-3 heading into this bowl game, which will be televised at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time Saturday on ABC. Here's how USA Today describes the match:

It took the postseason to do it, but the "Holy War" series that was interrupted by conference realignment is back after a two-year hiatus. Fittingly, it's an opportunity for BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall to end a four-game losing streak in the series against the Utes before he rides off to Virginia. Utah, of course, won't want to let that happen. 

Looking ahead to next week, a pair of directional schools – Western Michigan and Middle Tennessee State – will meet at noon Eastern time on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, in the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl. ESPN will broadcast this contest.

The day after Christmas, fans of the two Washington state football-playing universities – the University of Washington and Washington State – will need the remote control to watch their teams play. Washington State will play Miami of Florida in the Hyundai Sun Bowl at 2 p.m. Eastern on CBS. Then, at 2:20 p.m. on ESPN, Washington will take on Southern Mississippi in the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl.

Two traditional basketball powers, Duke and Indiana, meet on a football field laid out on the turf at New York's Yankee Stadium in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. The game will be televised Dec. 26 at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.

Another team which gets home field advantage, Navy, meets Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md. This contest kicks off at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 28 and will be televised on ESPN.

A bowl game that should be entertaining from an offensive standpoint is the Russell Athletic Bowl between North Carolina and Baylor on Dec. 29 in Orlando, Fla. Both the Tar Heels and Bears averaged more than 40 points per game, with Baylor leading the nation at 48 points per contest this year. You can watch this game at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN.

On Dec. 30, we find two schools playing close to home. Auburn will play Memphis at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in the Birmingham Bowl at noon on ESPN.

Then, at 3:30 p.m., North Carolina State meets Mississippi State in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte. ESPN will also carry this game.

Jan. 1 traditionally is chock-a-block full of games, with the Fiesta, Rose, and Sugar Bowls all taking place that day. In addition, the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, pitting Michigan against Florida, will kick off from Orlando at 1 p.m. Eastern on ABC. We have to ask: do they sell any citrus products at Buffalo Wild Wings?

Finally, on Jan. 2, there could be another wide-open offensive affair in the Valero Alamo Bowl between Texas Christian and Oregon from San Antonio. TCU and the Ducks also averaged over 40 points per game this season. ESPN will televise this contest, beginning at 6:45 p.m. Eastern.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to College bowl games 2015: Who to watch
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2015/1219/College-bowl-games-2015-Who-to-watch
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe