Bowl Game Rankings 1-3: Notre Dame vs Penn State Headlined These Historic Games

Bowl Rankings: Historic Bowls

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Bowl Rankings 2024-2025
Too Many Bowls 37-47
Bowls. Just Bowls 31-38
Pretty Good Bowls 25-30
Bowl Games Matter 19-24
Very Good Bowls 13-18
Great Bowls 8-12
Classic Bowls 4-7 

3 GameAbove Sports Bowl

Pitt vs Toledo
Final Score: Toledo 48, Pitt 46 6OT
Line: Pitt -7, o/u: 49.5
Last Year Bowl Ranking: 30
Past Post-Bowl Rankings
2022: 20, 2021: 28, 2020: NA, 2019: 9

How Good Was Your Bowl? Why is this bowl game walking among the gods? Let me put it this way.

I contend that the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl wasn't just the worst bowl game ever, not just the worst college football game ever, it was the worst sporting event played in recorded human history. It was a 10-7 TCU win over Cal that took on a life of its own.

Not only was it horribly played - nine combined interceptions, neither team got to 300 yards of offense - it wouldn't stop. It was a contest so evil that it forced an overtime in order to punish mankind for its sins even more than it already had.

Your 2024 GameAbove Sports Bowl was the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl on steroids.

It was so weirdly coached - both sides tried to out-turtle the other (I don't know what that means, but it's the only way to put it) - that it went on ... and on ... and on and ...

There were 20 combined penalties, five turnovers, and equal amounts of hope and misery that wouldn't stop. It was so masochistically wonderful that when it was over, the relief of the pain finally going away produced a high greater than any dispensary could craft.

Pitt had its chances to put the game away, and couldn’t. Toledo thought it won the game, and it turned out it didn’t. It thought it won the game again, and didn’t. And then the MAC team finally got it done in the sixth overtime.

All joking aside, this was wild bowl madness at its finest. In a game with 94 combined points, neither side was ever up by more than a score.

2 College Football Playoff Quarterfinal Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl

Arizona State vs Texas
Final Score: Texas 39, Arizona State 31 2OT
Line: Texas -13, o/u: 51.5
Last Year Bowl Ranking: 14
Past Post-Bowl Rankings
2022: 1, 2021: 7, 2020: 2, 2019: 3

How Good Was Your Bowl? Just when it seemed like we’d never get a really good College Football Playoff game, WHAM. America was kicked out of its New Year’s Day nap with a whopper of a finish.

Arizona State might have been the higher seed, but it was the underdog, there was no hope, and all of a sudden, we god something special.

Texas was up 24-8 with just under seven minutes to play, everyone was waiting for the Ohio State-Oregon Rose Bowl, and then Cam Skattebo happened.

Texas went Texas and did everything possible to screw up a win, and ASU took advantage with two touchdowns and two two-point conversions to force overtime.

Quinn Ewers bailed out the Longhorns with a razor-sharp pair of OT possessions with two touchdown throws to Matthew Golden, and it all ended on an interception to stop the heroic Sun Devil run short.

1 College Football Playoff Semifinal Capital One Orange Bowl

Notre Dame vs Penn State
Final Score: Notre Dame 27, Penn State 24
Line: Notre Dame -1.5, o/u: 43.5
Last Year Bowl Ranking: 40
Past Post-Bowl Rankings
2022: 26, 2021: 33, 2020: 3, 2019: 12

How Good Was Your Bowl? If you want the full range of emotions in a massive college football game, here you go.

First, the background to this took it to a whole other level. It was postponed a day because of the horrific tragedy in New Orleans on New Year's Eve. The greatness of the game hardly made anything better, but it sure was a needed distraction under trying circumstances.

Penn State was dominating defensively in the first half, but after a Mitch Jeter 41-yard field goal it was only 10-7. QB Riley Leonard was off, the Irish seemed a bit overmatched, and then they came out in the second half as a completely different team.

Everything flipped as Notre Dame because more physical and decisive on two touchdown drives, but Penn State answered back with two Nicholas Singleton touchdown for a 24-17 lead, and then came the best five minutes of the 2024-2025 college football season.

Notre Dame tied it on a 54-yard Jaden Greathouse touchdown catch after a defender slipped, Penn State had a chance to go on a game-winning drive but didn’t get a first down, Notre Dame couldn’t take advantage and had to punt the ball back with under a minute to play, and then …

Drew Allar, the guy who set the Penn State single season record for interception efficiency, put the ball in harms way, Christian Gray picked it off, Leonard got the Irish into field goal range with a little - and far more dangerous than anyone noticed - third down jump pass to Greathouse for a first down, Jeter nailed the 41-yard field goal, and wow.

Everything about this turned out to be special.

College Football Playoff National Championship

Notre Dame vs Ohio State
Final Score: COMING
Line: COMING, o/u: COMING
Last Year Bowl Ranking: 12
Past Post-Bowl Rankings
2022: 31, 2021: 2, 2020: 13, 2019: 10

How Good Was Your Bowl? COMING

Bowl Rankings 2024-2025
Too Many Bowls 37-47
Bowls. Just Bowls 31-38
Pretty Good Bowls 25-30
Bowl Games Matter 19-24
Very Good Bowls 13-18
Great Bowls 8-12
Classic Bowls 4-7