The expansion of the College Football Playoff has also thrown the rest of bowl season into disarray, and as a result, 2024’s bowl season begins a week after conference championship weekend. That means bowl games will share the day with the Army-Navy Game, college football’s traditional end of the regular season.
On December 14, the Cricket Celebration Bowl kicks off bowl season at noon ET on ABC. Army-Navy follows on CBS in its usual 3 p.m. ET timeslot, followed by the Camellia Bowl at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
First-round Playoff games taking place on Saturday, December 21 necessitated the shift, per Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli.
“Obviously the expanded College Football Playoff is going to add another level of excitement to our postseason,” Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli said. “With the opening-round games being played on that Saturday that had traditionally been reserved for the first day of bowl season, we were forced to move some games to the week prior to that, notably two games on Dec. 14, which were scheduled around the Army-Navy game. It was very important to us that we protected that time slot but at the same time providing a full day of college football, which I think our fans will enjoy.”
Two of the first-round games have been sublicensed to TNT Sports from ESPN.
11 bowl games, along with the four first-round games, take place before Christmas this year. Last year, that number was 18. Another 19 take place between Christmas and the first quarterfinal on New Year’s Eve. Another four take place between the quarterfinals and semifinals. The week between Christmas and New Year’s is chaos for bowl games – three take place on Thursday, December 26, four are on Friday, December 27, and a whopping eight air on Saturday, December 28.
For the full schedule, check out the Bowl Season website.
[ESPN, Bowl Season]
