NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl Officially Announced

By Kevin Kelley -

The NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl was officially announced today by the Arizona Sports and Entertainment Commission.

The bowl will be played on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 7:30pm ET at Arizona Stadium in Tucson and will pair teams from Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference.

Should either C-USA or the MWC not have enough bowl eligible teams, the Sun Belt Conference will serve as a backup.

The NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl will be the first post-season bowl game to have a “digitally-focused broadcast strategy.” Campus Insiders has partnered with the bowl to stream the game live. A television network partner will be announced at a later date.

With the addition of the Arizona Bowl, there are now a record 41 bowl games set for this season, including the College Football Playoff Championship Game. That means 80 FBS teams will be needed to fill all the positions.

With 128 FBS teams (Charlotte is not bowl eligible until 2016), 63% will play in the post-season.

Next season, there could be 42 or even 43 post-season games. The NCAA certified a bowl game for Austin, Texas, but organizers opted to delay their start. A bowl in Little Rock, Arkansas was also in the planning stages.

College Football Bowl Schedule

Comments (18)

I’ve started to view bowl games as an “end-of-season” ceremony playing a team scheduled on short notice, and celebrating the individual athletes. Looked upon that way, it’s not so bad a concept. With 43 bowl games and 86 teams playing… it’s about the only straight-face viewpoint left.

Bowl games don’t even mean anything anymore. Any crappy team in a bad conference can make it as long as they win 6 games.

Isn’t that the truth. Bowl games used to be a reward for having a good season. Now any team only has to win 3 out 8 or 9 conference games, beat three cupcakes @ home and then go play another mediocre team with a chance to win the least mediocre team of the day award in a made for TV bowl game in front of half to three quarters empty stadium. Look @ Illinois last year as a prime example (beat 3 even crappier Big10 teams, Western Kentucky and 2 other directional schools) and go play in front of 20,000 and get blown out by a mediocre Louisiana Tech team. What an accomplishment. It is the grown up version of orange slices and a pizza party after the 3rd grade flag football season and along with a $2.99 trophy with little Booby’s name on it.

Dave you know a lot of facts about that Illinois game, you must have watched. Why do we complain about a few extra college football games?

The Big Sky,MVFC, and CAA should jump up to FBS, and then the number of bowl games would seem appropriate.

If you don’t want to watch don’t, it is that simple. I will watch as many college football games as possible and not complain about it…..

Kevin it could be between 42, 43, or 44 bowls next bowl season for 2016-17 you got the 2 of them but don’t forget Medal of Honor Bowl in Charleston, South Carolina because those folks want to be a bowl game as well next year

2 many bowl game it not a privilege any more 0-13 teams are going to make bowl games. here how the bowl games should work: 7-5 or better teams automatically make it and if they are not enough teams then 6-6 teams can fill in those spots

The more bowl games there are, the less significant the second-tier bowls become. But it is still significant for a program to have a high number of bowl game wins. It says something about the long-term success of the program.

Tell that to every school in the MAC, SBC, MWC, CUSA, etc. that celebrate not only bowl wins but even bowl appearances. If Central Michigan University were to make it to the Camilla Bowl in Alabama I’d make the 9 hour drive from Texas to see it in person. It helps that I can hit the Lions MNF game in New Orleans on the way back, but still.

A lot of bowl haters still. Keep in mind how many good, bowl-eligible teams are left out of bowl games every year. If you actually like watching college football, they should all be celebrated. Bring it on, Arizona Bowl. I’ll watch me some 7-5 Mountain West and C-USA teams battle and be just fine with it.

I’m not a complete bowl hater. I’m just tired of seeing new bowls of rematches between conferences. Let’s get a new bowl that tie-ins the Pac-12 .vs. SEC. Let’s really see some new match-ups, instead rematches from the previous 4 years. It’s not often that teams play someone in a bowl game that they have not play in the past decade or two; and that’s saying a lot since there are near 130 FBS teams in the league and each team usually plays the same 8-10 teams every year on a 12-game schedule. I think only 5 bowls guaranteed a Power 5 .vs. Group 5 teams; Military Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, and the Birmingham Bowl. I excluding the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, and the Cotton Bowl, due to the fact that it’s based on At-Large teams.

Amen!! best conferences, Pac and SEC rarely play in the regular season and even more rarely in a Bowl game. Number of games is ok, matchups need work.