This last bowl season before the expanded College Football Playoff might be a tad rough.Everyone is opting out or transferring, too many teams are down to their second or third quarterbacks, a slew of coaches are bailing on their teams to go start new families, and everyone is super-grouchy all because Florida State didn’t get into the College Football Playoff, setting the wheels in motion for all the other ACC teams, and …Wah, wah, wah.It’s December, they’re college football bowl games, and it’s not like there’s anything else going on. Seriously, what are you going to do, talk to your family and friends? (Shudder)Hopefully these are the best 42 – and then 43, with the national championship – games of the college football season. Hopefully they’re all inspiring. Hopefully they’re all full of a gajillion yards of total offense and come down to one final play.Hopefully all these backup quarterbacks can complete a forward pass or three.Really, how good is your bowl game? We rank all 42 based on how strong they appear to be, but this year there’s a major caveat – more than ever before, really, assume a slew of players will missing. That means some of the better looking matchups could be duds, but don’t be shocked by anything this year. We’ll rank how good all the bowls were once the fun is over.Bowl Game Rankings- Deep Cuts (33 to 42)- It’s Football, You’ll Watch (25 to 32)- Bowls, Just Bowls (17 to 24)- Restaurant Quality (9 to 16)- Watch or Die (1 to 8) Pete Fiutak on X | CFN on XCollege Football News on FacebookPete Fiutak on Threads | CFN on Threads BOWL GAME RANKINGS: DEEP CUTS Turn the bowl game on. If it’s awful, get out, save your strength, take a nap, and you’ll get a new bowl soon. If they’re good – keep checking in – watch, enjoy, repeat. 42 TAXACT TEXAS BOWL Oklahoma State vs Texas A&M Wednesday, December 27, 20239:00 pm ET, ESPNLast Season: Texas Tech 42, Ole Miss 25Past Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 15, 2021: 33, 2020: NA, 2019: 14Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 30, 2021: 38, 2020: NA, 2019: 14How Good Is Your Bowl? It’s Texas A&M vs Oklahoma State so it should be somewhat spirited for the atmosphere, but the Aggies will be a shell of themselves in what might be a scrimmage to give the Mike Elko coaching staff tape on who’s still around. A&M will be missing too many parts, Oklahoma State will likely miss some stars, but in general should have far more 1s. 41 TONY THE TIGER SUN BOWL Oregon State vs Notre Dame Friday, December 29, 20232:00 pm ET, CBSLast Season: Pitt 37, UCLA 35 Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 26, 2021: 39, 2020: NA, 2019: 19Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 5, 2021: 13, 2020: NA, 2019: 21How Good Is Your Bowl? Neither team will come close to representing its 2023 version. There’s a theory that when teams lose everything, the guys stepping in bring the fire and put on a better show. That’s the hope for an Oregon State team missing head coach Jonathan Smith and a slew of stars. Notre Dame could be running way too many backups in key spots. 40 68 VENTURES BOWL Eastern Michigan vs South AlabamaSaturday, December 23, 20237:00 pm ET, ESPNLast Season: Southern Miss 38, Rice 24Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 39, 2021: 34, 2020: 23, 2019: 37Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 18, 2021: 34, 2020: 23, 2019: 28How Good Is Your Bowl? You have to REALLY love bowl games – or really not want to talk to your family – to dive into this one. A bowl by several different names over the years, the last time it wasn’t decided by double-digits was 2016. The MAC lost its last six appearances in it. 39 SRS DISTRIBUTION LAS VEGAS BOWL Utah vs Northwestern Saturday, December 23, 20237:30 pm ET, ABCLast Season: Oregon State 30, Florida 3Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 20, 2021: 31, 2020: NA, 2019: 15Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 41, 2021: 17, 2020: NA, 2019: 36How Good Is Your Bowl? The Las Vegas Bowl hasn’t been … Vegas. Six of the last seven were double-digit clunkers, and Wisconsin had total control over Arizona State in the 2021 version that was close. Northwestern might make this interesting for a little while, but Utah should start to roll over the last 30 minutes. 38 MILITARY BOWL Tulane vs Virginia Tech Wednesday, December 27, 20232:00 pm ET, ESPNLast Season: Duke 30, UCF 13Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 11, 2021: 21, 2020: NA, 2019: 27Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 36, 2021: T40, 2020: NA, 2019: 33How Good Is Your Bowl? Even if all the parts were there this would probably one giant bag of meh – 2023 Tulane wasn’t 2022 Tulane. Now the Green Wave won’t have head coach Willie Fritz – off to Houston – and this might be a true dud if QB Michael Pratt enters the portal or the NFL Draft mix. The Green Wave O is already missing key pieces. 37 RELIAQUEST BOWL LSU vs Wisconsin Monday, January 1, 202412:00 pm ET, ESPN2Last Season: Mississippi State 19, Illinois 10Pre-Bowl Rankings2022: 8, 2021: 3, 2020: 8, 2019: 4Post-Bowl Rankings2022: 19, 2021: 18, 2020: 11, 2019: 5How Good Is Your Bowl? As is the Wisconsin offense didn’t work, and now it’ll be without RB Braelon Allen and its top receivers. It hasn’t kicked in yet, but there’s no way LSU is close to the team it was throughout the season – QB Jayden Daniels and his top targets are almost certainly off to the pros. Even so, game-wise, this could be close late, even if it isn’t aesthetically pleasing – it’ll be better than LSU’s 63-7 win over Purdue in last year’s Citrus.
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