Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
By Chris Marler
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – bowl season.
Nothing says the holidays like sitting at home, and getting emotionally (and maybe financially) invested in a meaningless bowl game between two Directional Group of 6 schools sponsored by Jiffy Lube. It’s that beautiful sweet spot on the calendar after Christmas where you don’t know if it’s Tuesday or February, and the leftover Christmas cookies still feel calorie-free because you’re about to make another empty New Year’s promise about finally losing weight.
Every year I am astonished at how many bowl games are still around, and how apparently anyone can sponsor them. At some point we’re just going to let all 136 FBS teams play in bowl games sponsored by your weird cousin’s Etsy store. And, when it happens, I’ll love that too.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl features the sacrifice of a beloved figure, who is reborn anew as someone who is ceremonially consumed in celebration.
This is literally the central narrative of the crucifixion, resurrection, and communion. How could ND say no?!! pic.twitter.com/2hznwcS7zV
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 7, 2025
I have no complaints about bowl season. There are absolutely too many games, but the beauty of that is you don’t have to watch them. For sickos like me, we’re shoveling as many bad, “meaningless” bowl games into our metaphorical mouths as possible, fully aware that we’re about to be cut off from college football for eight long months. We’re basically bears in the hyperphagia stage before hibernation where they eat for 20 hours a day before sleeping for several months. But in this case, our “salmon” is betting my Christmas bonus on the Gasparilla Bowl.
What I’m looking forward to most – Bragging rights and the PopTart bowl
Bowl season isn’t exactly a reliable measure of conference strength, unless it’s your conference, and it wins most of its games. That’s how this works. A year ago, everyone said the SEC was the weakest it had been in twenty years. Only three teams made the Playoff, and they went 1–5 against the Big Ten. It was rough.
Caleb Downs on the differences between SEC football and Big Ten football 🤝
Caleb goes on to say that he’s seen a lot of Big Ten beat SEC teams in bowl games so you always have to bring your best
(via @davidpollack47) pic.twitter.com/MIUPh4BA9a
— Bleacher Report CFB (@BR_CFB) December 5, 2025
This year will provide a lot of opportunities for the SEC to earn some much needed confidence that was lost a season ago, and win some games against marquee opponents.
Texas and Michigan will be a great helmet game between two blue blood programs. The two met a year ago, and Texas dominated them. This year Texas started the preseason at No. 1, but their three losses kept them out of the playoff. They’ll face a Michigan team that, just last year, handed Alabama a humbling loss in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
From an optics standpoint, the two other biggest games for the SEC as a brand are the Gator Bowl and the Reliaquest Bowl. The SEC will send its nerd contingent to Florida for a shot at Missouri beating the runner-up in the ACC Championship Game, No. 19 Virginia. They were one win away from potentially making the CFP, but lost to Duke. Missouri was one of the “inflated” ranked teams from the SEC from earlier in the season, but finished 8-4. A win over a ranked opponent would be huge for Eli Drinkwitz, and a great start to the bowl season for the SEC.
SEC fans when their team has a good season but loses the bowl game:
“Who cares? We didn’t want to be there anyway, bowl games don’t matter!”Notre Dame opts out of a bowl game:
“ACTUALLY bowl games are sacred and skipping one is a crime against college football, your a disgrace”— nolan (@nolangoND34) December 8, 2025
The other brand builder game is in Tampa with Vanderbilt and Iowa. One of the talking points for non-SEC fans crying of SEC bias this season was that Missouri and Tennessee were both ranked for most of the season despite not having any wins over ranked opponents and each having at least three losses.
That narrative didn’t apply to Iowa, apparently, who got put back in the top 25 despite being 8-4 and 0-4 versus ranked teams. They’ll play Vanderbilt in Diego Pavia’s final collegiate game. The Commodores felt like they deserved a spot in the playoff and few teams were better with a chip on their shoulder over the last two seasons.
Also, the PopTart bowl is must-see television, and while it doesn’t feature an SEC team, I will be glued to it regardless. It’s a great ranked matchup between two exciting teams, Georgia Tech and BYU, but the bowl’s in-game theatrics outshine everything else all season. Last year, a PopTart was resurrected from a toaster that he “died” in the year before. As far as resurrections go, I don’t remember part three of that story in the bible, but I cannot wait to see what the brown sugar cinnamon and frosted strawberry have in store for us this year.
Here’s a look at this year’s SEC bowl games.
SEC Bowl Games
- TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) – Missouri vs. No. 19 Virginia – Dec. 27 – 7:30 pm ET – ABC
- Kinder’s Texas Bowl (Houston) – LSU vs. Houston – Dec. 27 – 9:15 pm ET – ESPN
- Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl (Nashville) – Tennessee vs. Illinois – Dec. 30 – 5:30 pm ET – ESPN
- Reliaquest Bowl (Tampa) – No. 14 Vanderbilt vs. No. 23 Iowa – Dec. 31 – Noon ET – ESPN
- Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (Orlando) – No. 13 Texas vs. No. 18 Michigan – Dec. 31 – 3 pm ET – ABC
- Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Charlotte) – Jan. 2 – Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest – 8 pm ET – ESPN
SEC CFP Games
- First Round – Alabama at Oklahoma (Norman) – Dec. 19 – 8 pm ET – ESPN & ABC
- First Round – Miami at Texas A&M (College Station) – Dec. 20 – Noon ET – ESPN & ABC
- First Round – Tulane at Ole Miss (Oxford) – Dec. 20 – 3:30 pm ET – TNT and HBO MAX
- Allstate Sugar Bowl – Georgia vs. Tulane/Ole Miss winner – Jan. 1 – 8:00 pm ET – ESPN
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