Bowl Games Schedule 2014-15: Complete Listings for Every Game
The first day of the holiday bowl season resurfaced a theme seen time and time again during the college football postseason—motivation is everything entering these games.
A team's mindset can be so much more important than sheer X's and O's come bowl season, and that was shown once again Saturday. Utah drubbed Colorado State—shaken by the departure of head coach Jim McElwain to Florida—by a score of 45-10. The Rams couldn't overcome a coaching change and play inspired football.
Whether it's schools that won't bring the same fight to the field knowing their once-realistic national title hopes are over or a program with young talent furiously looking to build momentum for 2015, motivation is often the deciding factor come bowl season. Of course, then there are teams like Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon and Florida State, which have everything to play for.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Take a look below to figure out when every game will be played and where you can catch it on the tube. We'll then dissect two games in which motivation will loom larger than most.
| Dec. 22 | Miami Beach Bowl | BYU vs. Memphis | 2 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 23 | Boca Raton Bowl | Marshall vs. Northern Illinois | 6 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 23 | San Diego County CU Poinsettia Bowl | Navy vs. San Diego State | 9:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 24 | Popeyes Bahamas Bowl | Western Kentucky vs. Central Michigan | 12 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 24 | Sheraton Hawaii Bowl | Rice vs. Fresno State | 8 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 26 | Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl | Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech | 1 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 26 | Quick Lane Bowl | Rutgers vs. North Carolina | 4:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 26 | BITCOIN St. Petersburg Bowl | NC State vs. UCF | 8 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 27 | Military Bowl | Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati | 1 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 27 | Hyundai Sun Bowl | Duke vs. Arizona State | 2 p.m. | CBS |
| Dec. 27 | Duck Commander Independence Bowl | Miami (Fl.) vs. South Carolina | 3:30 p.m. | ABC |
| Dec. 27 | New Era Pinstripe Bowl | Boston College vs. Penn State | 4:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 27 | National University Holiday Bowl | Nebraska vs. USC | 8 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 29 | AutoZone Liberty Bowl | West Virginia vs. Texas A&M | 2 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 29 | Russell Athletic Bowl | Clemson vs. Oklahoma | 5:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 29 | AdvoCare Texas Bowl | Texas vs. Arkansas | 9 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 30 | Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl | Notre Dame vs. LSU | 3 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 30 | Belk Bowl | Louisville vs. Georgia | 6:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 30 | Foster Farms Bowl | Maryland vs. Stanford | 10 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 31 | Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl | Ole Miss vs. TCU | 12:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 31 | Vizio Fiesta Bowl | Boise State vs. Arizona | 4 p.m. | ESPN |
| Dec. 31 | Capital One Orange Bowl | Mississippi State vs. Georgia Tech | 8 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 1 | Outback Bowl | Wisconsin vs. Auburn | 12 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Jan. 1 | Goodyear Cotton Bowl | Michigan State vs. Baylor | 12:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 1 | Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl | Minnesota vs. Missouri | 1 p.m. | ABC |
| Jan. 1 | Rose Bowl Game | Oregon vs. Florida State | 5 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 1 | Allstate Sugar Bowl | Alabama vs. Ohio State | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 2 | Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl | Pittsburgh vs. Houston | 12 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 2 | TaxSlayer Bowl | Iowa vs. Tennessee | 3:20 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 2 | Valero Alamo Bowl | Kansas State vs. UCLA | 6:45 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 2 | Cactus Bowl | Oklahoma St. vs. Washington | 10:15 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 3 | Birmingham Bowl | Florida vs. East Carolina | 1 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Jan. 4 | GoDaddy Bowl | Toledo vs. Arkansas State | 9 p.m. | ESPN |
| Jan. 12 | College Football Championship Game | TBD | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN |
Note: Bowl schedule courtesy of ESPN.com.
Outback Bowl: Auburn vs. Wisconsin
Some rough late-season results and—in Wisconsin's case—a coaching change have the Outback Bowl as one of the more intriguing battles on tap for bowl season.
The Auburn Tigers didn't make it through the SEC gauntlet with enough wins to threaten the College Football Playoff, and it's a fair question to wonder whether they will be completely up for the bowl after much higher hopes.
As for Wisconsin, the abrupt departure of head coach Gary Andersen has a Badgers team that was recently drubbed by Ohio State 59-0 reeling even more. Even Heisman runner-up Melvin Gordon is coming off his worst performance of the season.
The problem for the Badgers, though, will be that defense recently gashed by the Buckeyes. While Auburn's defense doesn't help much, its offense is among the best in the nation with Nick Marshall and Cameron Artis-Payne running Gus Malzahn's system to perfection.
If Malzahn's team comes in wanting to prove something on New Year's Day and plays like it, the Badgers will have to show the resolve they didn't against Ohio State or face a similar result.
You have a team spoiled by success against a team undergoing a coaching change and playing for a staff it knows won't be back next season. But if there's one group of people who should be all-in for this game, it's the entire nation, according to AL.com's Brandon Marcello:
Maybe all Auburn's players need to find the motivation for this one is to read that above tweet.
TaxSlayer Bowl: Iowa vs. Tennessee
There might not be a bowl game this postseason featuring teams with more different mentalities heading in than the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.
Kirk Ferentz's Iowa Hawkeyes entered 2014 with an outside opportunity to compete for a championship in the wide-open Big Ten or at least make some steps toward national prominence. Yet here they are at 7-5 and at the end of a disappointing season.
They'll look across EverBank Field and see a Tennessee Volunteers team full of young talent and reinvigorated by getting the program's first bowl bid since 2010. If the youth continues to gel and head coach Butch Jones works some more magic, the Vols could be gunning for an SEC Championship Game appearance in 2015.
The excitement of both teams can only be described by the ticket allotments. The Des Moines Register's Chad Leistikow reported Iowa is expecting to sell half of its allotment, while Tennessee sold out days after the announcement.
Iowa has a burly offensive line and the physicality to compete with SEC opposition, but it's hard to see the Hawkeyes fully getting up for this one. Meanwhile, Tennessee is playing in a game that most players on the roster have eyed for years.
Motivation only factors in so much, but when two evenly matched teams that are such polar opposites in that department go at it, you'd have to imagine it will factor in considerably.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
