The Big 12 worked tirelessly in the offseason to maintain its status among college football’s elite conferences, shifting slightly west of its former geographic center to add four former Pac-12 schools in 2024. How has conference realignment and a new 12-team College Football Playoff affected the Big 12’s bowl tie-ins?
What Bowls Are Tied In With the Big 12?
- Valero Alamo Bowl (vs. TBD, formerly Pac-12)
- Pop-Tarts Bowl (vs. ACC)
- TaxAct Texas Bowl (vs. SEC)
- AutoZone Liberty Bowl (vs. SEC)
- Guaranteed Rate Bowl (vs. Big Ten)
- Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl (vs. Army)
Bowl Selection Process
The dissolving of the Pac-12 somewhat complicates the Big 12’s bowl selection process. Since some rights deals between the Pac-12 and bowl affiliates extended beyond the life of the Pac-12 itself, the former members are still technically affiliated with those bowls.
Accordingly, if any of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State are bowl-eligible but fail to make the College Football Playoff, they’ll go to one of the Alamo, Independence, Holiday, LA, Las Vegas, or Sun bowls.
Like the SEC, but unlike the ACC, the Big 12 has a rough pecking order for its non-College Football Playoff bowls. That order is listed above, with the Alamo Bowl getting the first selection and the Independence Bowl getting the last.
Note: The Independence Bowl was a Pac-12 bowl that is supposed to get a Big 12 team in two of the three seasons between 2023 and 2025. Texas Tech took that slot last season, meaning the Big 12 will only be affiliated with the Independence Bowl in either 2024 or 2025.
If there are still bowl-eligible Big 12 teams available, a few remaining bowls could invite a remaining Big 12 team. However, there aren’t any standard affiliations after the six above. That’s important to note with so much parity in the Big 12 in 2024.
Due to the recent realignment, it’s possible that affiliations could shift before the end of the regular season.
College Football Playoff and the SEC
But first, the College Football Playoff has to be sorted out. The Big 12 champion will almost certainly have a top-four seed and a subsequent bye, assuming there’s not some sort of major upset in the title game that causes one of the Group of Five champions to be ranked higher in the final CFP poll.
Then, there’s a possibility that one or more other Big 12 teams receive an at-large bid to the College Football Playoff. If that happens, those teams will not participate in traditional one-off bowl games.
The number of at-large bids the Big 12 gets will directly affect the number of lesser bowl slots and which teams fill them.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season With CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
The former New Year’s Six bowls will rotate as quarterfinal and semifinal games over the life of the 12-team playoff. While those bowls may still follow loose affiliations, there are no rules about which teams will play in which bowls.
Teams in the College Football Playoff will follow a standard 12-team playoff system, with the first-round games (between teams ranked 5-12) being played at the home stadium of the higher seed and then the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship game being played at neutral sites.
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