College football is a huge money maker for many companies and business. Making a bowl game is what a college team strives to achieve at the end of the season. The college football playoff is a  part of the bowl selection, but it is the top four teams in the country who play in the two semifinal games. To qualify for regular college football bowl, a team must have six or more wins. A bowl game is usually against a team you would never play in the regular season or in conference play. Bowl games are also in either big name cities like Atlanta and San Francisco or in vacation destinations such as the Bahamas or Hawai’i. Bowl games are located in such places because the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) knows more money will be made when there are things to do outside the bowl game.

All bowl games have a sponsorship or an advertisement that gives the bowl game a name. Sponsors sign deals with bowls so they can spread their campaign as a whole. The sponsor’s name is put on everything that has to do with the game such as patches on jerseys, the endzones, the midfield, posters in the stadium, and all types of merchandise. There are three levels of bowls. The New Year’s Six bowls are the top 12 teams and are the largest bowls you can play in.

New Year’s Six bowls include:

• Goodyear Cotton Bowl – Dallas, Texas (college football playoff semifinal)
• Capital One Orange Bowl – Miami, Florida (college football playoff semifinal)
• Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl – Atlanta, Georgia
• Allstate Sugar Bowl – New Orleans, Louisiana
• Playstation Fiesta Bowl – Phoenix, Arizona
• Rose Bowl presented by Northwest Mutual – Pasadena, California

The New Year’s Six bowls are the best teams in the country and they are played in some of the best stadiums in the NFL. The AT&T stadium, the Hard Rock stadium, and the Mercedes Superdome are just some of the stadiums.

Outside the New year’s Six there are winning season bowls. This tier of bowl games are for teams that had good seasons, but didn’t get to a championship level. These teams are playing great competition in their bowl games. The games are usually in nice destinations, baseball stadiums, or vacation spots. The teams in these bowls are usually four or five loss teams.

Some of these games include:

• TaxSlayer Gator Bowl – Jacksonville, Florida
• New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Bronx, New York (Yankee Stadium)
• Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl – Nassau, Bahamas
• SoFi Hawai’i Bowl – Honolulu, Hawai’i
• Outback Bowl- Tampa, Florida
• Camping World Bowl- Orlando, Florida

The next tier of bowls are for teams that just squeezed in 6 wins. They are usually low conference football bowl series. Many of these games are just for companies to make a quick buck off a college football game. The schools are usually having a down year or are a school that few have heard of. The good thing about this type of bowl is it gives the school exposure and experience it does not receive over the regular season. It brings pride to the school and helps with the football recruiting process.

Some of these games include:

• Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl – Atlanta, Georgia
• Gildan New Mexico Bowl – Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Cheez-It Bowl – Phoenix, Arizona
• Academy Sports Outdoors Texas Bowl – Houston, Texas

Overall there are 41 bowl games. That is 82 teams playing a bowl game this year. It is impossible to watch all 41, but all games are filmed on either ABC, ESPN, or Fox Sports chains. College football will be a nonstop event from December through January. The national championship will be played on Jan. 7 in Santa Clara, California at Levi’s Stadium home of the San Francisco 49ers.

Some people call it bowl season, bowl mania, or bowl fever. I just call it an excuse to watch extra football.