College Football: How many bowl games are there now?

There are more and more bowl games every year in college football.

41. That’s how many bowl games we will be treated to for the 2018-19 college football season, and quite frankly, that is too darn many.

Now, for a die-hard college football fan, this is heaven. Starting on Dec. 15 with the New Mexico Bowl, we will be in the midst of “Bowl Mania,” and it keeps growing year-after-year. The current bowl setup is designed to put as many college teams in the postseason as possible so these schools can get a piece of the Bowl pie.

Why else would we have the Boca Raton Bowl, a game that is wholly unnecessary?

Because colleges make bank on bowl games, that’s why; and it doesn’t matter if the teams playing in it barely reaches the win threshold to be bowl-eligible (six), what matter is that those schools will be going “bowling,” and that means national exposure (ESPN, ABC, and CBS will be broadcasting the games), which translates into mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money for schools that, just six years ago, would be sitting at home.

So now these lesser schools have their own bowls to satisfy the masses, for better, and for worse. Here’s the complete rundown of all the bowl games that we’ll be treated to for Bowl Mania 2018!

Dec. 15

Noon — Celebration Bowl — Atlanta, GA (ABC)
2 pm — Gildan New Mexico Bowl — Albuquerque, NM (ESPN)
2:30 pm — Cure Bowl — Orlando, FL (CBSSN)
3:30 pm — Las Vegas Bowl — Las Vegas, NV (ABC)
5:30 pm — Raycom Media Camellia Bowl — Montgomery, AL (ESPN)
9 pm — R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl — New Orleans, LA (ESPN)

Dec. 18

7 pm — Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl — Boca Raton, FL (ESPN)

Dec. 19

8 pm — Frisco Bowl —  Frisco, TX (ESPN)

Dec. 20

8 pm — Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl — St. Petersburg, FL (ESPN)

Dec. 21

12:30 pm — Bahamas Bowl — Nassau, Bahamas (ESPN)
4 pm — Famous Idaho Potato Bowl — Boise, Idaho (ESPN)

Dec. 22

Noon — Birmingham  Bowl — Birmingham, AL (ESPN)
3:30 pm — Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl — Fort Worth, TX (ESPN)
7 pm — Dollar General Bowl — Mobile, AL (ESPN)
10:30 pm — Hawai’i Bowl — Honolulu, HI (ESPN)

Dec. 26

1:30 pm — Heart of Dallas Bowl — Dallas, TX (ESPN)
5:15 pm — Quick Lane Bowl — Detroit, MI (ESPN)
9 pm — Cactus Bowl —  Phoenix, AZ (ESPN)

Dec. 27

1:30 pm — Walk-On’s Independence Bowl — Shreveport, LA (ESPN)
5:15 pm — New Era Pinstripe Bowl — Bronx, NY (ESPN)
9 pm — Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl — Houston, TX (ESPN)

Dec. 28

1:30 pm — Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl — Nashville, TN (ESPN)
5:15 pm — Camping World Bowl — Orlando, FL (ESPN)
5:30 pm — Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl — Tucson, AZ (CBSSN)
9 pm — Valero Alamo Bowl — San Antonio, TX (ESPN)

Dec. 29

Noon — Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl — Atlanta, GA (ESPN)
Noon — Belk Bowl — Charlotte, NC (ABC)
4 or 8 pm — Capital One Orange Bowl — Miami, FL (ESPN)
4 or 8 pm — Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic — Arlington, TX (ESPN)

Dec. 31

Noon — Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman — Annapolis, MD (ESPN)
3 pm — Fosters Farms San Francisco Bowl — Santa Clara, CA (ESPN)
3:45 pm — AutoZone Liberty Bowl — Memphis, TN (ESPN)
4 pm — San Diego Country Credit Union Holiday Bowl — San Diego, CA
7:30 pm — TaxSlayer Gator Bowl — Jacksonville, FL (ESPN)
TBA — Hyundai Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX (CBS)

Jan. 1

Noon — Outback Bowl — Tampa, FL (ESPN)
1 pm — Citrus Bowl — Orlando, FL (ABC)
1 pm — PlayStation Fiesta Bowl — Glendale, AZ (ESPN)
5 pm — Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual — Pasadena, CA (ESPN)
8:30 pm — Allstate Sugar Bowl — New Orleans, LA (ESPN)

Jan. 7

8 pm — College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T — Santa Clara, CA (ESPN)