The 10 Best Bowl Games of the Season, Ranked
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There's a reason why we watch bowl games. We wait for the ones that turn into classics, and these are the ten bowls out of the 47 that were the best of the best.
They're the ones that meant the most, or were the most fun, or were a combination of the two. They're the ones that made the bowl season worth watching.
Below were the ten best games of the college football bowl season.
The 10 Bowl Games From Great to Classic
Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl
Illinois vs Tennessee
CFN Bowl Rank: 10
Final Score: Illinois 30, Tennessee 28
Line: Tennessee -2.5, o/u: 61.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 14, 2023: 37, 2022: 43, 2021: 3, 2020: NA, 2019: 22
How Good Was Your Bowl? This was a blast. Illinois was fantastic, the defense dominated for most of the night, and Tennessee kept hanging around.
The Illini settled for field goals, left the door open, and the Vols kicked it in with a kick-six from Joakim Dodson on the way to a lead with just under five minutes to play.
The Illini O showed up, marching 13 plays, it set up a chip shot, and David Olono nailed the game-winner.
CFN Bowl Rankings: Entertaining | Forgettable | 10 Worst
Rate Bowl
Minnesota vs New Mexico
CFN Bowl Rank: 9
Final Score: Minnesota 20, New Mexico 17 OT
Line: Minnesota -1.5, o/u: 44.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 5, 2023: 8, 2022: 3, 2021: 5, 2020: 9, 2019: 2
How Good Was Your Bowl? Everyone got a bit of a win here. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense, but it was a good, tight game throughout.
New Mexico showed just how good it was, and how good it should be going forward, and Minnesota sidestepped the landmine with a tremendous touchdown catch in overtime to pull it off.
Valero Alamo Bowl
TCU vs USC
CFN Bowl Rank: 8
Final Score: TCU 30, USC 27 OT
Line: USC -4.5, o/u: 56
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 42, 2023: 13, 2022: 5, 2021: 38, 2020:17, 2019: 13
How Good Was Your Bowl? USC was missing everyone, TCU quarterback Josh Hoover was in the portal looking to play somewhere else, and … what more do you want?
It was nip and tuck until late, when USC seemed to be in control, and then TCU found a way to get ten points in the final five minutes to force overtime.
The Trojans settled for a field goal, but all was fine after a sack shoved the Horned Frogs on the edge of field goal range. On 3rd and 20, TCU was trying to get it a little closer, but Jeremy Payne had other ideas.
He caught a short pass, avoided two Trojans who were right there, slipped a tackle, and somehow didn’t get shoved on the sidelines on his way to an improbable walk-off 35-yard touchdown, and the best finish of the bowl season.
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
Duke vs Arizona State
CFN Bowl Rank: 7
Final Score: Duke 42, Arizona State 39
Line: Duke -4.5, o/u: 49.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 4, 2023: 41, 2022: 5, 2021: 13, 2020: NA, 2019: 21
How Good Was Your Bowl? This was as fun as a bowl game can get, with lots of scoring, big plays, a good comeback, great quarterback play, and a celebration of cereal.
The two teams combined for well over 1,100 yards, with Duke’s Darian Mensah going off late to balance out a massive day from ASU’s Jeff Sims.
The Sun Devils got two late touchdown passes from Sims to go up 39-35, and had the game all but won after stopping the Blue Devils on fourth down.
ASU was trying to run out the clock, lost a fumble trying to run out the clock, and Mensah came through with a 17-yard touchdown pass for the winning score.
College Football Playoff First Round (Saturday late game)
Miami at Texas A&M
CFN Bowl Rank: 6
Final Score: Miami 10, Texas A&M 3
Line: Texas A&M -2.5, o/u: 47.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 37 (Penn State-SMU)
How Good Was Your Bowl? Don’t just go by the missed field goals, the turnovers, the lack of offense, and the inability of either team to open it up. This was a fascinating game with both teams refusing to bust out of their conservative game plans. And it worked … for Miami.
The defense was amazing, Mark Fletcher and the ground attack took over, and it all ended with an interception in the end zone to seal the thriller for the Hurricanes.
Really, it was a better game than you think.
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (CFP Quarterfinal)
Miami vs Ohio State
CFN Bowl Rank: 5
Final Score: Miami 24, Ohio State 14
Line: Ohio State -9.5, o/u: 42.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 6, 2023: 28, 2022: 4, 2021: 29, 2020: 22, 2019: 11
How Good Was Your Bowl? A wonderful game, Miami got up 14-0 on a Keionte Scott perfectly-timed pick six, highlighting a defense that shut out Ohio State in the first half. And then the Buckeyes finally woke up.
They finally remembered they were Ohio State, rolled for two strong touchdown drives, but a missed field goal was a killer. All the best defense in college football had to do was come up with one more stop, and down 17-14, the Buckeyes had their shot.
Miami’s offense had other ideas with a soul-crushing ten-play drive that lopped off five minutes to close out the game and knock out the defending national champs.
Cricket Celebration Bowl
South Carolina State vs Prairie View A&M
CFN Bowl Rank: 4
Final Score: South Carolina State 40, Prairie View A&M 38 4OT
Line: Prairie View A&M -2.5, o/u: 52.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 47, 2023: 7, 2022: 6, 2021: 36, 2020: NA, 2019: NA
How Good Was Your Bowl? What more could you possibly want to kick off the bowl season?
South Carolina State was getting blown out, and it seemed like things were all over after losing starting quarterback William Atkins. Ryan Stubblefield came in, and he let it rip in a fantastic comeback.
The Bulldogs tied it up, gave up a 78-yard Cameron Bonner touchdown pass, and rallied back to tie it up on a clutch drive to force overtime.
Two traded field goals, an interception, a missed chip shot, and two missed two-point tries later, South Carolina State came through on its two-point conversion – even though the call was wrong, and the failed replay made it worse. Prairie View A&M got stuffed on its try, and with that, these two put on a classic show.
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl (CFP Semifinal)
Miami vs Ole Miss
CFN Bowl Rank: 3
Final Score: Miami 31, Ole Miss 27
Line: Miami -3, o/u: 52.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 29, 2023: 38, 2022: 3, 2021: 11, 2020: 14, 2019: 1
How Good Was Your Bowl? Forgetting the controversial finish for a moment, it was a thriller, mainly because the Hurricanes kept screwing up and couldn’t put it away.
The door stayed open, and Rebel QB Trinidad Chambliss almost busted on through.
Miami owned the clock for over 41 minutes, but it took a clutch 15-play, 75-yard drive – culminating in a game-winning touchdown run from Carson Beck – to pull it off.
Oh, and there was that little thing about a last-gasp Chambliss throw into the end zone with what very, very easily could’ve been a pass interference call, but wasn’t.
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Cal vs Hawaii
CFN Bowl Rank: 2
Final Score: Hawaii 35, Cal 31
Line: Cal -3, o/u: 55.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 8, 2023: 16, 2022: 14, 2021: T40, 2020: NA, 2019: 37
How Good Was Your Bowl? Everything a bowl game should be about, both teams had fun, the energy was amazing, and it was a fight to the finish. And after a whale or a battle, it all ended with a postgame kitten fight to ring in Christmas Day.
Cal got up 21-0, and then Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado caught fire.
The Rainbow Warriors fought through to tie it up, but Cal was about to get out alive with a late touchdown run from Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele with less than two minutes to play to go up 31-28.
Hawaii marched back, but down three in the final seconds, Alejado cramped up and went out with the ball on the 22.
In came backup Luke Weaver, he fired a perfect pass into the end zone, and Nick Cenacle made the scoring grab for the thrilling win.
Allstate Sugar Bowl (CFP Quarterfinal)
Ole Miss vs Georgia
CFN Bowl Rank: 1
Final Score: Ole Miss 39, Georgia 34
Line: Georgia -6.5, o/u: 55.5
Past Post-Bowl Rankings: 2024: 18, 2023: 3, 2022: 14, 2021: 7, 2020: 2, 2019: 11
How Good Was Your Bowl? One drive, three plays.
The Sugar Bowl came up huge on an awful day of CFP games – Indiana and Oregon beat Alabama and Texas Tech by a combined score of 61-3 – thanks to Trinidad Chambliss.
He became the talk of the bowl season with his magic act, with three fantastic plays on a fourth quarter touchdown drive to give Ole Miss the lead, but Georgia didn’t go away.
Gunner Stockton did his part to tie it up in the wild back-and-forth fight in the final frame, but Chambliss was too good, kicker Lucas Carneiro was outstanding – including a 47-yard game-winning bomb of a field goal with six seconds to play, and all of a sudden, this season’s CFP had its signature game.
Part 1 of CFN’s complete ranking of all 47 bowl games from best to worst.
CFN Bowl Rankings: Entertaining | Forgettable | 10 Worst
This story was originally published by College Football News on Jan 14, 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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