Bowl Games Schedule 2015-16: Dates, Live Stream Info and Predictions

There was a time not long ago when bowl games took center stage every college football season. The idea of a playoff or even a BCS system seemed foreign, and high-profile clashes such as the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl represented opportunities for blue-chip programs to test their mettle against the best from around the country.

Alas, the allure of bowl games has been replaced by the race for the College Football Playoff that dominates discussion throughout the regular season. Still, there are more than 40 bowl games this season alone, and conferences will have the opportunity to flex their muscles in interleague battles as teams look to launch themselves into next season with plenty of momentum.

Fanbases will also have the chance to watch teams play opponents they likely wouldn’t during the regular season.

Here is a look at the complete bowl schedule and broadcast information, courtesy of ESPN.com, as well as predictions for the marquee matchups.

Date	Bowl Game	Time (ET)	Location	TV	Live Stream
Dec. 19	Cure Bowl	Noon	Orlando	CBSSN	CBSSports.com
Dec. 19	Gildan New Mexico Bowl	2 p.m.	Albuquerque	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 19	Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl	3:30 p.m.	Las Vegas	ABC	WatchESPN
Dec. 19	Raycom Media Camellia Bowl	5:30 p.m.	Montgomery	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 19	R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl	9 p.m.	New Orleans	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 21	Miami Beach Bowl	2:30 p.m.	Miami	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 22	Famous Idaho Potato Bowl	3:30 p.m.	Boise	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 22	Marmot Boca Raton Bowl	7 p.m.	Boca Raton	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 23	San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl	4:30 p.m.	San Diego	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 23	GoDaddyBowl	8 p.m.	Mobile	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 24	Popeyes Bahamas Bowl	Noon	Nassau	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 24	Hawai'i Bowl	8 p.m.	Honolulu	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 26	St. Petersburg Bowl	11 a.m.	St. Petersburg	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 26	Hyundai Sun Bowl	2 p.m.	El Paso	CBS	CBSSports.com
Dec. 26	Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl	2:20 p.m.	Dallas	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 26	New Era Pinstripe Bowl	3:30 p.m.	Bronx	ABC	WatchESPN
Dec. 26	Camping World Independence Bowl	5:45 p.m.	Shreveport	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 26	Foster Farms Bowl	9:15 p.m.	Santa Clara	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 28	Military Bowl	2:30 p.m.	Annapolis	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 28	Quick Lane Bowl	5 p.m.	Detroit	ESPN 2	WatchESPN
Dec. 29	Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl	2 p.m.	Fort Worth	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 29	Russell Athletic Bowl	5:30 p.m.	Orlando	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 29	NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl	7:30 p.m.	Tucson	unlisted	WatchESPN
Dec. 29	AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl	9 p.m.	Houston	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 30	Birmingham Bowl	Noon	Birmingham	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 30	Belk Bowl	3:30 p.m.	Charlotte	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 30	Music City Bowl	7 p.m.	Nashville	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 30	Holiday Bowl	10:30 p.m.	San Diego	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 31	Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	Noon	Atlanta	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 31	College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl	TBD	Arlington	ESPN	WatchESPN
Dec. 31	College Football Playoff Orange Bowl	TBD	Miami	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 1	Outback Bowl	Noon	Tampa Bay	ESPN 2	WatchESPN
Jan. 1	Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl	1 p.m.	Orlando	ABC	WatchESPN
Jan. 1	Fiesta Bowl	1 p.m.	Glendale	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 1	Rose Bowl	5 p.m.	Pasadena	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 1	Allstate Sugar Bowl	8:30 p.m.	New Orleans	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 2	TaxSlayer Bowl	Noon	Jacksonville	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 2	AutoZone Liberty Bowl	3:20 p.m.	Memphis	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 2	Valero Alamo Bowl	6:45 p.m.	San Antonio	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 2	Cactus Bowl	10:15 p.m.	Phoenix	ESPN	WatchESPN
Jan. 11	College Football Playoff National Championship	8:30 p.m.	Glendale	ESPN	WatchESPN

Date	Bowl	Time	Location	Predicted Matchup
Dec. 31	Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	Noon	Atlanta	Iowa vs. Florida State
Dec. 31	College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl	TBD	Arlington	Alabama vs. Michigan State
Dec. 31	College Football Playoff Orange Bowl	TBD	Miami	Clemson vs. Oklahoma
Jan. 1	Fiesta Bowl	1 p.m.	Glendale	Notre Dame vs. Houston
Jan. 1	Rose Bowl	5 p.m.	Pasadena	Ohio State vs. Stanford
Jan. 1	Allstate Sugar Bowl	8:30 p.m.	New Orleans	Baylor vs. Ole Miss

Outlook

Barring any chaos in the conference title games, the playoff matchups are fairly clear-cut, outside of the Big Ten.

Clemson will handle a North Carolina team that isn’t strong enough on the defensive side (107th in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game) to stop Deshaun Watson and Wayne Gallman. That will give the Tigers the No. 1 seed, which will put them as close to home as possible in the Orange Bowl.

As a result, Dabo Swinney’s team will face Oklahoma, which doesn’t have a game this weekend and will be jumped by Michigan State after the Spartans knock off Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game. That may not exactly be much of a reward for Mark Dantonio’s squad, though, since it will mean facing mighty Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

The Crimson Tide will have no trouble with an overmatched Florida Gators team that needed overtime just to get past Florida Atlantic. The Gators are strong on the defensive side of the ball, but the offense won’t generate much against the Crimson Tide’s front seven during the SEC Championship Game.

Nick Saban’s squad will get the chance to avenge last season’s playoff loss to Ohio State against another Big Ten team.

While the other teams selected to the New Year’s Six Bowls won’t be pleased to be on the outside looking in at the playoffs, there are plenty of potentially intriguing matchups. Perhaps none is more exciting than a hypothetical showdown between the defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes and eventual Pac-12 champion Stanford Cardinal.

The Buckeyes may have more talent than any other team in the country. The list of offensive superstars alone is enough to make an opposing coach dizzy (Ezekiel Elliott, J.T. Barrett, Michael Thomas, Braxton Miller, Jalin Marshall and plenty more), and that’s not even taking the defense of Joey Bosa, Darron Lee, Vonn Bell and Raekwon McMillan into account.

This showdown would feature opposing styles of play, with Stanford’s heavy packages and strong rushing attack behind two stars of its own, Christian McCaffrey and Kevin Hogan. McCaffrey has been a Heisman Trophy candidate all season and even drew comparisons to Reggie Bush in the process.

The running back probably enjoys that, considering he idolized the USC playmaker growing up, as he told Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times: “I really loved how versatile a guy he was. How explosive he was. You never knew what he was going to do next. He caught the ball, he ran the ball…he did everything.”

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

McCaffrey, Hogan and the power game of Stanford against the uptempo, no-huddle offense of the Buckeyes may remind many of the annual showdowns between the Cardinal and the Oregon Ducks. Considering how thrilling those typically are, there is nothing wrong with that.

Speaking of offense, a game between Baylor and Ole Miss would feature plenty of it. 

Baylor leads the nation with 50.8 points per game, while Ole Miss is 13th with 40.3. There will be some New Year’s fireworks in this one, and Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly will get another opportunity to prove his superstardom to the nation after he beat the Crimson Tide this season.

ESPN’s Robert Smith certainly thinks Kelly is deserving of more attention:

Kelly and the Rebels will have to match wide receiver Corey Coleman and the Bears in a back-and-forth affair.

Elsewhere, a game between Iowa and Florida State would match a traditional power, the Seminoles, against a team many have overlooked all year, the Hawkeyes. Iowa will miss its chance to clinch a playoff spot against a strong Michigan State defense Saturday, but a victory over the Seminoles would validate the Big Ten contender as more than just a product of a favorable schedule this season.

Finally, if commentators think Houston coach Tom Herman is a hotly pursued candidate now, just wait if he beats Notre Dame in a bowl game. Herman won a national title as the offensive coordinator with Ohio State and built Houston into a well-oiled machine behind quarterback Greg Ward Jr. in one season.

Notre Dame was in the playoff chase for most of the year and may not be quite as motivated as the Cougars in this one. That is exactly how upsets happen during bowl season.