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Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban looks on before the SEC Championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Winners and losers from the college football bowl schedule

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 12/4/23

The 2023-24 college football bowl schedule was announced on Sunday, from the four-team playoff field, to the New Years Six games to everything after.

Some teams are very happy with their placement.

Others, might not be as happy.

So let's take a look at some of the big winners and losers from the selections.

Winners

Alabama: When Alabama was trailing in the Iron Bowl and facing a fourth-and-goal from the 31-yard line two weeks ago their playoff hopes seemed to be in the tank. Then Jalen Milroe completed a miracle pass to give the Crimson Tide a win setting up their SEC Championship game win to catapult them into the top-four of the playoff field.

It required a perfect storm of events, including their own wins and the playoff committee deciding that a 13-0 Florida State team with a backup quarterback was not deserving of a spot.

Texas: Alabama getting a spot in the playoff was honestly the best thing that Texas could have possibly hoped for. Because if the Committee was going to put in a one-loss Alabama team, there was no way it could justify leaving out a one-less Texas team that also happened to give the Crimson Tide their only loss of the season.

The Orange Bowl: The Orange Bowl is the beneficiary of the controversial decision to leave Georgia and Florida State out of the playoff field and give college football fans what might be the best non-playoff bowl game on on the schedule. Florida State might not have superstar quarterback Jordan Travis, but the Seminoles defense is legit and will give the Bulldogs everything it can handle. It might be a fantastic defensive slugfest.

Liberty: Liberty just wrapped up its best football season ever with a 13-0 record and a stunning spot in a New Year's Six game as it will go the Fiesta Bowl to play the Oregon Ducks. Is it a terrible matchup for Liberty? On paper, probably.

The Ducks will be significant favorites with starting quarterback Bo Nix playing, even if several other top Ducks stars bow out of the game. But that is still a big moment for Liberty and a huge payout to get an opportunity to play on that stage.

The Sun Bowl: The Sun Bowl is getting a great matchup with Notre Dame and Oregon State meeting in El Paso. That is a fantastic get for the Sun Bowl because you know Notre Dame fans are going to flock anywhere their team plays, while bowl organizers did not even seem to think it was possible for them to get Notre Dame.

Notre Dame coming to the Sun Bowl was so unexpected that the committee didn't have their helmet on site. An emotional Bernie Olivas joined me on KTSM at 4 to discuss how this happened. ND vs. Oregon State, Dec. 29 at noon.

See the whole interview here: https://t.co/J5llzpY2nt pic.twitter.com/HTmF9gcK7H
— Colin Deaver (@ColinDeaverTV) December 4, 2023

Losers

Georgia. The Bulldogs have been so good this season and seemed to be so far ahead of the pack that there did not really seem to any possibility that they would get left out of the playoff field, even with a loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship game.

In what has turned out to be an unprecedented move by the committee, the Bulldogs went from the No. 1 spot the week before the selection to falling completely out of the top four.

Florida State. As shocking as it was for Georgia to fall out of the top four, nobody has to be sicker than Florida State fans over the selection process. The Seminoles went 13-0, won a Power Five conference and even without their starting quarterback still have one of the nation's best defenses.

They did everything that was asked of them, had a perfect record, and it still was not good enough. The Orange Bowl matchup is great with Georgia and Florida State. But neither fan base is going to be happy about being there.

USC. It is not necessarily that USC deserved a better fate than a Holiday Bowl matchup with Louisville, it's just the Trojans had to have significantly higher hopes this season.

They were a contender for a playoff spot a year ago. Came back with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. Entered the season as a top six team in the preseason rankings. Then ended up not even coming close to the playoffs, lost five games and are playing in a second-tier bowl game.

That is a highly, highly disappointing season for a program that wanted to think it was back on the national stage.

Oklahoma. The Sooners peaked at No. 6 this season and went into November looking like a fringe playoff contender. Then they lost back-to-back games against Kansas and Oklahoma State and took themselves right out of contention.

Now they completely missed out on a New Year's Six bid and have to play a really good Arizona team that will be a handful.

The playoff committee. The playoff selection committee gets a spot in the loser's column just because it has completely ruined the discussion around college football.

The results of games no longer matter. Going 13-0 in a major conference? It no longer matters. It is all about hypothetical guessing games and narratives like this:

CFP chair Boo Corrigan on the Bama-FSU debate: "The questions we do ask from a coaching stand point is who do you want to play and who do you not want to play."

Oh my
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 3, 2023

It goes against the very nature of sports and competition to discount actual on-field results like this. If any other sport tried to introduce a format like this it would be laughed off without any serious consideration.

At least next year a few more teams will get a seat at the table, but the process will remain just as flawed. Instead of arguing about the fourth, fifth and sixth teams, it will simply be about the 12th, 13th and 14th best teams.

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