Bowl Grades by Conference: Ranking How Each League Fared
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It was an interesting and long bowl and College Football Playoff season. How good were all the conferences?
It was a rough run for some, a dominant month for others, and everyone had a little bit of fun – even through the disappointments. Here are our grades for every league’s postseason.
Grading Every Conference After the Bowl Season
Team-by-Team Bowl Game Grades
ACC | Big Ten | Big 12 | SEC
American | CUSA | MAC | MWest | Sun Belt
9. Mountain West
It was up and down. Mountain West Champion Boise State didn’t belong on the same LA Bowl field as Washington, UNLV stayed in the hotel in the loss to Ohio, and Utah State didn’t get off the bus against a fired-up Washington State.
On the plus side, San Diego State gave it the old college try in a fight with North Texas, and New Mexico gave it everything against Minnesota. Hawaii pulled off a thriller against Cal, and Fresno State stopped Miami University cold.
Bowl Grade: C
Bowl Record: 2-5
ATS: 3-4
Last Year Ranking: 7, Grade C
– Mountain West Bowl Grades By Team
8. SEC
Ooooooof. The SEC got just as many wins against itself as it did against everyone else. It wasn’t just that the conference kept losing over and over and over again, it was that … yeah, it was that it kept losing over and over and over again.
For the third straight season, the SEC didn’t get a team into the national championship, Alabama got destroyed by Indiana, Texas A&M lost at home to Miami, and … Texas beat Michigan, and Ole Miss hit the two-foot putt against Tulane, so there’s that.
Bowl Grade: C+
Bowl Record: 2-8
ATS: 2-8
Last Year Ranking: 5, Grade C+
*We didn’t count the SEC vs SEC games, Ole Miss vs Georgia and Alabama vs Oklahoma
– SEC Bowl Grades By Team
7. Sun Belt
Old Dominion’s blowout over USF was great, but the other two interconference wins – Arkansas State over Missouri State, and Texas State over Rice – were expected. The Sun Belt lost two games it was favored in, and didn’t stand out too much overall.
Bowl Grade: B-
Bowl Record: 3-5
ATS: 5-3
Last Year Ranking: 8, Grade C+
*We didn’t count the Sun Belt vs Sun Belt game, App State vs Georgia Southern
– Sun Belt Bowl Grades By Team
6. MAC
It was right down the middle for the conference in its five games. Western Michigan (over Kennesaw State) and Ohio (over UNLV) were incredible, Miami University (against Fresno State) and Central Michigan (against Minnesota) got rocked, and Toledo showed up well in a loss to Louisville.
Bowl Grade: B
Bowl Record: 2-3
ATS: 3-2
Last Year Ranking: 4, Grade B+
– MAC Bowl Grades By Team
5. Conference USA
Conference USA champ Kennesaw State getting rocked by Western Michigan in the Myrtle Beach wasn’t okay, but overall, it was a good run for the conference.
Missouri State showed up in a bowl loss, but Delaware pulled off an upset, WKU, Louisiana Tech, and Jacksonville State all won – but NO ONE scored a ton this postseason.
Bowl Grade: B
Bowl Record: 4-3
ATS: 4-3
Last Year Ranking: 9, Grade C+
– CUSA Bowl Grades By Team
4. American Conference
To be fair, a few key teams like USF and Memphis were missing their coaches and a slew of parts – they should’ve been stronger in their respective games, though. Tulane got destroyed by Ole Miss in the College Football Playoff, but Army and Navy showed up large, UTSA was terrific, and East Carolina came up with a whale of a performance against Pitt.
Bowl Grade: B
Bowl Record: 5-4
ATS: 4-5
Last Year Ranking: 2, Grade A-
– American Bowl Grades By Team
3. Big 12
It would’ve been nice if Texas Tech scored in the College Football Playoff loss to Oregon, and Arizona didn’t do enough in the Holiday Bowl loss to SMU, but for the most part, everything else went fine. TCU stunned USC late, BYU and Utah did their respective jobs, and overall, it was a solid showing by the conference.
Bowl Grade: B
Bowl Record: 4-4
ATS: 5-3
Last Year Ranking: 6, Grade B
– Big 12 Bowl Grades By Team
2. ACC
It was a terrific postseason for the conference, with Miami making a run to the College Football Playoff National Championship, ACC champ Duke slipping by Arizona State, and Virginia pulling out a thriller over Missouri. The only truly bad loss was Pitt dropping the Go Bowling Military Bowl to East Carolina.
Bowl Grade: A-
Bowl Record: 9-5
ATS: 8-6
Last Year Ranking: 10, Grade C-
– ACC Bowl Grades By Team
1. Big Ten
What more could you possibly want? Nebraska got rocked by Utah, but that was expected. USC collapsed late, but it had it against TCU.
Everything else was strong with Illinois (Tennessee) and Iowa (Vanderbilt) making SEC teams sad, Washington rocking Mountain West champ Boise State, Penn State coming up strong against Clemson and …
Oh yeah, Indiana did something big – and Oregon’s only loss after beating Sun Belt champ James Madison and shutting out Big 12 champ Texas Tech was to the Hoosiers.
Bowl Grade: A
Bowl Record: 10-4
ATS: 9-5
Last Year Ranking: 1, Grade A-
*We didn’t count the Big Ten vs Big Ten Indiana win over Oregon
– Big Ten Bowl Grades By Team
Related: CFN Final College Football Rankings: All 136 Teams After a Wild Year
This story was originally published by College Football News on Jan 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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