New Year’s Day is college football’s holiest day, except when it’s on a Sunday. Then the Rose, Sugar, and whatever other games are tagging along go to Monday, instead. That helps college football avoid competing with the NFL for viewers, but it actually goes back decades before the NFL even started.
How to watch Jan. 2 college football: The New Year’s bowl schedule is today instead!
The Rose Bowl and three other games are on a Monday because of a decades-old tradition.
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That means you get four likely competitive games that you haven’t already watched yet! Thanks, 1893 Rose Parade committee!
The Rose tends to be the headliner, and this year, it’s also the day’s game between the highest-ranked teams. PSU adds “taking out Playoff committee frustrations” to “hooray, we’re in Pasadena” on its list of motivations, while USC can complete its claim to be the nation’s hottest non-undefeated team.
The Cotton features this year’s New Year’s Six mid-major, Western Michigan, which has already gone 2-0 against lesser teams in Wisconsin’s division. Time to see if WMU could’ve actually won that whole side of the Big Ten.
The Sugar Bowl is pretty good, but nothing too special, and the Outback Bowl has food stakes: if Florida wins, you get a Bloomin’ Onion. If Iowa wins, you get coconut shrimp. Those are the most important stakes of all.
| Time (ET) | Bowl | TV, online streaming |
| 1 p.m. | No. 8 Wisconsin vs. No. 15 WMU Cotton Bowl | ESPN, WatchESPN |
| 1 p.m. | No. 17 Florida vs. Iowa Outback Bowl | ABC, WatchESPN |
| 5 p.m. | No. 5 Penn State vs. No. 9 USC Rose Bowl | ESPN, WatchESPN |
| 8:30 p.m. | No. 7 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Auburn Sugar Bowl | ESPN, WatchESPN |
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