College Football Playoffs Set

It's the most wonderful time of the year, at least for College Football it is anyway. Yes, bowl season is upon us. Forty bowl games are on tap for College Football, starting with the Celebration Bowl on December 19th and culminating with the College Football National Championship game on January 11th. An Annual event going on since the very first bowl game in 1902, which was the Tournament of Roses Association (Rose Bowl) between Michigan and Stanford, a game which Michigan won 49-0. Now everybody seems to get a bowl game. There are forty games (41 if you include the National Title game), all of which are tie in games. Lets think about this. Bowls can’t be justified by tradition. Yes, there’s the Rose, the Sugar, the Cotton and the Orange. Now, explain the existence of the TicketCity, the New Orleans, the Armed Forces, the Little Caesars, the Military, the Kraft Fight Hunger, the GoDaddy.com, the New Mexico, the Humanitarian, the Beef O’Brady’s, the Hawaii, the Champs Sports, the BBVA Compass, the Insight, the Pinstripe, the Poinsettia, the Texas, the Las Vegas and the Music City bowls. It's all about money, which is why there are so many bowl games. That being said, here's the full list of every bowl game being played this year, so you can decide which games you wanna watch.

Here's the full list of the College Football Bowl Games:

Dec. 19
Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl Alcorn State vs. North Carolina A&T Atlanta
Cure Bowl San Jose State vs. Georgia State
Gildan New Mexico Bowl Arizona vs. New Mexico Albuquerque
Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl BYU vs. Utah Las Vegas
Raycom Media Camellia Bowl Ohio vs. Appalachian State
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Arkansas State vs. Louisiana Tech

Dec. 21
Miami Beach Bowl Western Kentucky vs. South Florida

Dec. 22
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Akron vs. Utah State
Marmot Boca Raton Bowl Toledo vs. Temple

Dec. 23
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Boise State vs. Northern Illinois
GoDaddy Bowl Georgia Southern vs. Bowling Green

Dec. 24
Popeyes Bahamas Bowl Middle Tennessee vs. Western Michigan
Hawai'i Bowl San Diego State vs. Cincinnati

Dec. 26
St. Petersburg Bowl Connecticut vs. Marshall
Hyundai Sun Bowl Miami vs. Washington State
Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl Washington vs. Southern Miss
New Era Pinstripe Bowl Indiana vs. Duke
Independence Bowl Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech
Foster Farms Bowl UCLA vs. Nebraska

Dec. 28
Military Bowl presented By Northrop Grumman Pittsburgh vs. Navy
Quick Lane Bowl Central Michigan vs. Minnesota

Dec. 29
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl California vs. Air Force
Russell Athletic Bowl North Carolina vs. Baylor
NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl Nevada vs. Colorado State
AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl LSU vs. Texas Tech

Dec. 30
Birmingham Bowl Auburn vs. Memphis
Belk Bowl NC State vs. Mississippi State
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl Texas A&M
Holiday Bowl USC vs. Wisconsin

Dec. 31
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Houston vs. Florida State
College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 1 Clemson
College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic No. 3 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Alabama

Jan. 1 Outback Bowl Northwestern vs. Tennessee
Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl Michigan vs. Florida
BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl Notre Dame vs. Ohio State
Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual: Stanford vs. Iowa
Allstate Sugar Bowl Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss

Jan. 2
TaxSlayer Bowl Penn State vs. Georgia
AutoZone Liberty Bowl Kansas State vs. Arkansas Memphis
Valero Alamo Bowl Oregon vs. TCU
Motel 6 Cactus Bowl West Virginia vs. Arizona State Phoenix

Jan. 11
College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T Glendale, Arizona

Phew! That's a lot of bowl games to take in. Now lets take a look at the three big games on the schedule, that being the College Football playoffs. The selection last year was a lot more dramatic than it was this year. The four teams getting in this year, Clemson (13-0), Alabama (12-1), Michigan State (12-1) and Oklahoma (11-1) were all but locked into their place, based on winning their respective conferences.

Clemson is the lone unbeaten team in the country, that coming thanks to Iowa falling to Michigan State in Saturday’s Big Ten championship game. Combine that with some of the big wins Clemson got during their unbeaten season, the Tigers earned the top spot without much debate. Think about it, they beat Notre Dame in October, Florida State in November and North Carolina this past Saturday. They will be matched up with Oklahoma in a rare rematch of a bowl game from a year ago. Clemson beat the tar out of the Sooners 40-6 in 2014’s Russell Athletic Bowl, but this Oklahoma team bears little resemblance to that one.

After a shocking loss to Texas on Oct. 10, Bob Stoops managed to flip the switch and turn this team into a national title contender. Here's a team in Oklahoma that averaged 52 points per game since then, including consecutive victories against Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State to claim the Big 12 regular season championship. A year ago, the Big 12 was left out of the playoff due to the lack of a conference championship. That wasn’t as much of a worry this season, especially with Pac-12 winner Stanford having two losses.

The semifinal games will be taking place on New Years Eve, with the winners meeting in the national championship game on January 11th. The National Title Game will take place in Glendale, Arizona. Ohio State took home last year's trophy as the four seed after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Oregon in the CFP championship game. We will have a full previwe of both College Football playoff games and the National Championship game as we get closer to game day!