College football bowl games schedule tracker 2014

The initial lines for all of the 2014 college football bowl games are out. While we now have an idea of how Vegas expects each team to do this postseason, it also gives us an idea of how Vegas expects bowl season to go for each of the conferences.

The Big Ten is likely to face some heat once again. The conference isn’t expected to win a game this postseason, according to Vegas, while the SEC is expected to win at least 75 percent of its games.

Fun fact! The Gator Bowl is not played at the home of the Florida Gators, in Gainesville. It is played in Jacksonville, and is one of the oldest bowl games still running. This year, we’ll see Iowa and Tennessee, two teams that don’t usually score a lot of points.

Started in 1946, the Gator Bowl was the first college bowl televised nationally. It has gone through a litany of sponsors -- Mazda, Outback Steakhouse, Toyota and Progressive are among the companies who have seen their names title the bowl -- and TaxSlayer.com has owned the naming rights for the game since 2012. Previously the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl, the name has been changed this year to simply the TaxSlayer Bowl.

The Armed Forces Bowl is usually a lot of fun, especially when one of the nation’s service academies are taking on a mid-major from Conference USA or the Mountain West. Last year, though, things got ugly. This year, we’ll see one Group of Five team and one Power Five team when Houston takes on Pittsburgh

Last year Navy cruised to a 24-6 win over Middle Tennessee State, but the game got out of hand. From last year’s recap:

The Quick Lane Bowl is one of a few new bowl games on the slate this year, and of all the new ones, it probably has the most appeal to a casual fan, unless you really like the Bahamas. The Detroit Lions have agreed to support and sponsor the game, which is a funny story in itself.

With agreements in place to host teams from the ACC and Big Ten, we should be in for a pretty good time. In the initial year of the new tie-ins, Rutgers will take on North Carolina. It remains to be seen if anyone actually shows up to watch the game -- Detroit isn’t exactly the No. 1 destination for people looking for a post-Christmas vacation -- but nonetheless it is an important football game and some folks will surely make the trip.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl is one of the newer postseason games on the slate. It was created in 2011 in the hopes of hosting a Big 12 vs. Big Ten matchup each December, though that was only the case in the inaugural season when teams from those conferences have struggled to win enough games in order to qualify. If recent history is any indication, this year’s Heart of Dallas Bowl will be a blowout: in four games, the winning team has won by an average of 22 points. Hopefully this one, featuring Illinois and Louisiana Tech, will be a little closer.

Here is all you need to know about this year’s contest in Dallas.

Believe it or not, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl has been around since 1959, making it one of the longest running bowl games in the country. After featuring tie-ins with Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference at times over the last 15 years or so, the Liberty Bowl recently struck up a deal to host Big 12 and SEC teams each season. That will certainly make for an exciting game and should lead to a pretty solid crowd turnout given Memphis’ proximity to both conferences.

Here is all you need to know about this year’s game, which will feature a points-filled matchup of West Virginia and Texas A&M:

When the Russell Athletic Bowl was founded in 1990, it was the Blockbuster Bowl. There may be a joke somewhere about this year’s game being the first since Blockbuster finally closed its doors, but that may be too much of a stretch. This is a space for information, not humor. And here’s the most important information: This year’s game will feature a talent-filled matchup of Clemson and Oklahoma.

Nothing was funny about last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl, which Louisville won, 36-9, over Miami in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s final collegiate game. Bridgewater, now a member of the Minnesota Vikings, won the game’s MVP with three touchdown passes and a 1-yard touchdown run.

The Birmingham Bowl may not be a familiar name for most college football fans, but it’s actually just the BBVA Compass Bowl, which has been around since 2010. The BBVA Compass Bowl used to be named the PapaJohns.com Bowl from 2006-10. Before that, the PapaJohns.com Bowl was named -- you guessed it! -- the Birmingham Bowl. I think we might have just figured out the plot for Inception 2. This year, East Carolina and Florida will meet in Birmingham.

Here is everything you need to know prior to kickoff.

The AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl has been a pretty fun matchup in recent years. The 2013 edition featured a Syracuse touchdown with 1:14 remaining to upend Minnesota, and the Golden Gophers were on the short end of the stick again in 2012. In that game, with future Red Raiders coach Kliff Kingsbury looking on, Tech scored 10 points in the final 1:10 to come away with a 34-31 victory. The most Texas thing about the Texas Bowl is that it is played in NRG Stadium, which boasts a record attendance of 80,020 fans who showed up for George Strait’s Cowboy Rides Away Tour last March.

This year, we’ll see another Texas thing ... Texas! The Longhorns will take on Arkansas.

The 17th edition of the Music City Bowl is here, and this year’s game marks the 10th anniversary of its SEC-ACC affiliation. This year, it will be LSU and a partial ACC member, Notre Dame.

The Music City Bowl has historically stayed close -- only once in the past 10 years has the final margin been wider than a touchdown. We here at SB Nation are obligated to inform you that the widest margin in the game’s previous 16 editions was 38-7 in the inaugural Music City Bowl at Vanderbilt Stadium, when Alabama mustered just a single score and lost to Virginia Tech. Ever since, the game has been played at LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans.

It was never a BCS bowl game and it was passed over as one of the national semifinal sites for the new College Football Playoff, but there is no denying that the Citrus Bowl, which is returning to its old name after a stint as the Capital One Bowl, is one of the most anticipated bowl games of the season each year.

Here is everything you need to know for this year’s game.

The Independence Bowl has been around since 1976. The game has had seven sponsors over the last 38 years, ranging from Poulan Weedeater to AdvoCare. But now, for the first time ever, the game will be called the Duck Commander Independence Bowl, instantly shooting it to the top of the bowl game name power rankings. This year, Miami and South Carolina will fight to be king of the ducks, according to ESPN.

Duck Commander is, you guessed it, one of the nation’s leading duck call companies. It’s run and owned by the Duck Dynasty gang, which took over TV with their quirky redneck ways.

The inaugural College Football Playoff’s field is set. We knew Alabama and Oregon will be the top two seeds. We know the Tide will host in Nola and the Ducks are going to Pasadena. We know Florida State’s in. And we now the fourth spot is Ohio State over Baylor and TCU.

We’ve also got an idea of how the rest of bowl season shakes out. The committee’s expected rankings, each bowl’s conference ties, and a notion of how college football works can get you close to guessing how December and January will look.

The St. Petersburg Bowl was first known as the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl. Then it was renamed to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl in 2009 when sponsorship changed, making it an instant favorite of the Internet with all of its apostrophes. It should remain an Internet favorite going forward, as cryptocurrency BITCOIN has moved in as the new title sponsor. This year, it will be UCF vs. NC State, according to ESPN.

Here is everything you need to know about this year’s game:

The Valero Alamo Bowl was never part of the BCS and it was not included in the brand new College Football Playoff, but that has never stopped the folks in Texas from bringing a couple of terrific teams to San Antonio each season. This year, we’ll see UCLA take on Kansas State in a big-time matchup.

Now that all College Football Playoff games are held on New Year’s Day, the Alamo Bowl will likely take on a bigger stage on Jan. 2. The only other bowl games that day are the TaxSlayer and Armed Forces Bowls, neither of which will draw in the casual fan. The Alamo Bowl is, however, well known nationally and tends to feature a ton of scoring and some great offensive action. So while it may not be one of the prestigious New Year’s Day bowls, there will still be plenty of reasons to tune in.

The National University Holiday Bowl will never be the Rose Bowl -- let’s be honest, nothing will -- but it is arguably the second-best bowl game on the West Coast. This year, we’ll get to see USC take on Nebraska.

Sure, the Fiesta Bowl has bigger implications, but it’s played in the middle of nowhere in the Phoenix suburbs. The Holiday Bowl is nestled in beautiful San Diego and is a short trip away from the beach. Would you rather spend your holiday vacation in the Glendale deserts or on the beaches of San Diego? The Holiday Bowl also pits the Big 12 and Pac-12 against each other every year, and that usually results in a great high-scoring affair with no shortage of excitement.

With a late kickoff time from the Arizona desert and conference tie-ins to the Big 12 and Pac-12, the Cactus Bowl (formerly Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl) tends to be a good one. Three of the last five games have been decided by three points or fewer, including an instant classic between Iowa and Missouri in 2010 and a grind-it-out slugfest between Michigan State and TCU in 2012. This year, it will be Oklahoma State vs. Washington.

Will we be in for another great game from Tempe? Here’s all you need to know for game day.

Date and time: Tuesday, Dec. 30, 10 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

The Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl may not get a ton of attention nationally, but it’s a pretty sweet deal for everyone involved. This year, it’s Colorado State vs. Utah.

For one, the game is just a couple of miles away from the Las Vegas Strip. There’s something for everyone on the strip. The weather in Vegas is almost always beautiful in December. As the rest of the country hits a deep freeze, the folks checking out the game may be able to go in shorts and a T-shirt. There’s also the timing factor; with the game being played on Dec. 20, it allows football fans plenty of time to head back home for the holidays without having to deal with insane travel days. Sounds like a pretty good deal. And fans are usually treated to a pretty good game between Pac-12 and Mountain West Conference foes.

The Belk Bowl isn’t typically thought well of when it comes to the upper echelon of December bowl games, but with conference tie-ins to the ACC and SEC (or a prominent at-large team from one of the big five conferences), it should probably be a bigger game on the national scale. This year, it will feature Louisville and Georgia, according to ESPN.

Date and time, ET: Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014, 6:30 p.m. ET

The 2014 Outback Bowl is upon us, and it’s taken a preeminent place in this year’s bowl rotation as one of the top bowl games that won’t feature one of the four national semifinalists. It’s among a simultaneous triple-header of bowls — Outback, Capital One and Cotton — on New Year’s Day you can surf through before the two national semifinals, the Rose and Sugar bowls, kick off later in the day.

Date and time: Thursday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET

The Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman hasn’t been around for long, dating back to 2008 when it was known as the EagleBank Bowl. This year’s game will be the second to be held near the U.S. Naval Academy campus after originally being played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., in its first five years of existence. It seems like a smart move since attendance has topped 30,000 just twice, and both of those games featured Maryland as one of the participants.

This year, the participants will be Cincinnati and Virginia Tech.

The 1940 Sun Bowl was the lowest-scoring game in the history of college football, because no game could possibly net fewer points. Arizona State and Catholic University played to a scoreless draw. Sun Devils quarterback Walt Ruth was 0-for-7 with two interceptions, and both teams combined for 16 yards passing and 23 punts.

Please hope that the 2014 Hyundai Sun Bowl is better. It must be better. Last year’s game was a far cry from 1940’s debacle. UCLA scored 28 points in the fourth quarter and dominated Virginia Tech, 42-12. This year, it will be Duke against Arizona State, according to ESPN.

The fifth annual New Era Pinstripe Bowl is nigh, and to date, the four bowl games in Yankee Stadium have fared much better than when Northwestern and Illinois tried to take Wrigley Field by storm for a regular-season game in 2010.

Date and time, ET: Saturday, Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m. ET

In the ever-expanding world of college bowl games, the Miami Beach Bowl is one of the new kids on the block. It also joins the relatively short list of postseason games to be played in a Major League Baseball park. BYU is a participant thanks to a one-off tie-in. With the American managing the game, future contests will also feature teams from Conference USA, the MAC and Sun Belt. This year, it will be Memphis vs. BYU, according to ESPN.

Date and time, ET: Monday, Dec. 22, at 2 p.m. ET