Bowl Games 2012: Complete Schedule and Teams for 2012-2013 Bowl Matchups

The good folks from the bowl selection committees have blessed us with the 2012-13 bowl schedule on BCS Sunday, and college football has yet again set the stage for a remarkable finish to the season.

Headlining the selections is No. 1 Notre Dame, playing in its first national championship in the BCS era behind a stellar defense and Heisman candidate Manti Te'o. Joining the Irish, Nick Saban and Alabama survived the SEC gauntlet and will try to make it an impressive seven straight titles for the conference.

We found out around 5 p.m. ET that the BCS bowls were set, and that Northern Illinois grabbed the Orange Bowl slot and forced Oklahoma out of the mix. Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel had the scoop.

The rest of the BCS bowls will feature a myriad of top talent, including Florida State in the Orange Bowl and Stanford and Wisconsin facing off in a battle of top running backs featuring Stepfan Taylor and Montee Ball.

Check out the full schedule below to see where your favorite team landed, when and where to catch the game and a few notable matchups you won't want to miss.

Bowl Schedule

Notes: All times are ET and p.m. unless noted otherwise. All games (except for Sun Bowl and Cotton Bowl) can be streamed live at WatchESPN.

Bowl	Team 1	Team 2	Stadium: Location	Date: Time	TV
New Mexico	Nevada	Arizona	University Stadium: Albuquerque, NM	12/15: 1:00	ESPN
Famous Idaho Potato	Toledo	Utah State	Bronco Stadium: Boise, ID	12/15: 4:30	ESPN
Poinsettia	BYU	San Diego State	Qualcomm Stadium: San Diego, CA	12/20: 8:00	ESPN
Beef 'O' Brady's	Ball State	UCF	Tropicana Field: St. Petersburg, FL	12/21: 7:30	ESPN
New Orleans	East Carolina	Louisiana-Lafayette	Superdome: New Orleans, LA	12/22: Noon	ESPN
Las Vegas	Boise State	Washington	Sam Boyd Stadium: Las Vegas, NV	12/22: 3:30	ESPN
Hawaii	SMU	Fresno State	Aloha Stadium: Honolulu, HI	12/24: 8:00	ESPN
Little Caesars	Central Michigan	Western Kentucky	Ford Field: Detroit, MI	12/26: 7:30	ESPN
Military	Bowling Green	San Jose State	RFK Stadium: Washington, DC	12/27: 3:00	ESPN
Belk	Duke	Cincinnati	Bank of America Stadium: Charlotte, NC	12/27: 6:30	ESPN
Holiday	Baylor	UCLA	Qualcomm Stadium: San Diego, CA	12/27: 9:45	ESPN
Independence	Ohio	Lousisiana-Monroe	Independence Stadium: Shreveport, LA	12/28: 2:00	ESPN
Russell Athletic	Virginia Tech	Rutgers	Florida Citrus Bowl: Orlando, FL	12/28: 5:30	ESPN
Meineke Car Care	Minnesota	Texas Tech	Reliant Stadium: Houston, TX	12/28: 9:00	ESPN
Armed Forces	Rice	Air Force	Amon G. Carter Stadium: Fort Worth, TX	12/29: 11:45 a.m.	ESPN
Pinstripe	Syracuse	West Virginia	Yankee Stadium: Bronx, NY	12/29: 3:15	ESPN
Kraft	Navy	Arizona State	AT&T Park: San Francisco, CA	12/29: 4:00	ESPN2
Alamo	Texas	Oregon State	Alamodome: San Antonio, TX	12/29: 6:45	ESPN
Buffalo Wild Wings	TCU	Michigan State	Sun Devil Stadium: Tempe, AZ	12/29: 10:15	ESPN
Music City	N.C. State	Vanderbilt	LP Field: Nashville, TN	12/31: Noon	ESPN
Sun	Georgia Tech	USC	Sun Bowl: El Paso, TX	12/31: 2:00	CBS
Liberty	Tulsa	Iowa State	Liberty Bowl: Memphis, TN	12/31: 3:30	ESPN
Chick-fil-A	Clemson	LSU	Georgia Dome: Atlanta, GA	12/31: 7:30	ESPN
Gator	Northwestern	Mississippi State	Everbank Field: Jacksonville, FL	1/1: Noon	ESPN2
Heart of Dallas	Purdue	Oklahoma State	Cotton Bowl: Dallas, TX	1/1: Noon	ESPNU
Outback	Michigan	South Carolina	Raymond James Stadium: Tampa, FL	1/1: 1:00	ESPN
Capital One	Nebraska	Georgia	Florida Citrus Bowl: Orlando, FL	1/1: 1:00	ABC
Rose	Stanford	Wisconsin	Rose Bowl: Pasadena, CA	1/1: 5:00	ESPN
Orange	Florida State	Northern Illinois	Sun Life Stadium: Miami, FL	1/1: 8:30	ESPN
Sugar	Florida	Louisville	Superdome: New Orleans, LA	1/2: 8:30	ESPN
Fiesta	Kansas State	Oregon	U. of Phoenix Stadium: Glendale, AZ	1/3: 8:30	ESPN
Cotton	Oklahoma	Texas A&M	Cowboys Stadium: Arlington, TX	1/4: 8:00	FOX
BBVA Compass	Pittsburgh	Ole Miss	Legion Field: Birmingham, AL	1/5: 1:00	ESPN
GoDaddy.com	Kent State	Arkansas State	Ladd-Peebles Stadium: Mobile, AL	1/6: 9:00	ESPN
BCS National Championship	Notre Dame	Alabama	Sun Life Stadium: Miami, FL	1/7: 8:30	ESPN

*Note: BCS Games are in BOLD; information from ESPN.com was used in this report.

Notable Storylines

No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Alabama

The biggest game of the year features two of the country's most prestigious schools. Alabama proved against Georgia that it can run on almost any team in the country—but don't tell that to Notre Dame's run defense.

No. 15 Northern Illinois vs. No. 12 Florida State

Oklahoma got knocked out of the BCS due to Northern Illinois finishing high enough in the rankings to claim a top spot. Can Jordan Lynch and the Huskies make any dent in a Florida State defense that has been highly ranked all season?

It has an eerie feel to the 2010 Sugar Bowl, when Cincinnati lost Brian Kelly before getting trounced by Florida. Still, they play the game on the field, and not on paper. The Huskies will be the Cinderella team of this BCS group.

Louisiana Tech Turns Down Bid

According to Graham Watson, the Bulldogs will be sitting at home and won't have a chance to get to 10 wins because they decided against a game with rival ULM:

"

La. Tech has decided not to play in a bowl game this year because it didn't want to play rival school ULM in the Indy Bowl. Yes, seriously.

— Graham Watson (@YahooDrSaturday) December 2, 2012"

What a shame for La. Tech fans, who experienced a season in which they almost knocked off Texas A&M and was amongst the national leaders in offense.

Cotton Bowl

It couldn't have set up better for college football fans, specifically ones of the Big 12. Only Texas would have made for a sweeter matchup in this one, as the Big 12 tries to prove that A&M is still of a lower class than its SEC counterparts.

Ethan Grant is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report's Breaking News Team.

Follow @DowntownEG