This bowl season is shaping up to be quite interesting. Only one local college football team is headed to post-season play, and three schools have declined bowl invitations.
The Oklahoma Sooners will be hosting a College Football Playoff game against Alabama on Dec. 21. This is not a bowl game, but rather a post-season game in a playoff bracket. If the Sooners win, they will advance to the CFP quarterfinals and play Indiana in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Oklahoma State and Tulsa both failed to win six games; thus, they are not eligible for a bowl game invitation.
OSU played in bowl games for 18 straight seasons from 2006 to 2023, but failed to make a bowl game in 2024, which began the decline of Mike Gundy’s reign as head coach. In OSU’s most recent bowl appearance, the Cowboys beat Texas A&M 31-23 in the Texas Bowl.
Tulsa has made seven bowl appearances in the past 16 seasons. Most recently, the Golden Hurricane lost to Mississippi State, 28-26, in the Armed Forces Bowl in 2020 and beat Old Dominion, 30-17, in the Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2021. This is the fourth straight season for TU to not play in a bowl game.
Notre Dame, who felt snubbed by the CFP rankings and selections, has declined to accept any bowl invitation. The university released a statement on Sunday.
“As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season,” said the Notre Dame post on X. “We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.”
The way the CFP works is the four highest-ranked teams (No. 1 Indiana, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Texas Tech) earned a first-round bye and will play their first CFP games in the quarterfinals.
There are five automatic bids that went to the five highest-ranked conference champions in the latest CFP rankings: No. 1 Indiana (Big Ten), No. 3 Georgia (SEC), No. 4 Texas Tech (Big 12), No. 20 Tulane (American) and No. 24 James Madison (Sun Belt).
Then there are seven at-large bids that went to four SEC programs (No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Alabama), two Big Ten teams (No. 2 Ohio State, No. 5 Oregon) and No. 10 Miami, the ACC’s lone representative.
Notre Dame is ranked at No. 11 and is the highest-ranked team left out of the 12-team bracket. The Fighting Irish were ranked No. 10 and ahead of Miami the previous week, but the Hurricanes jumped up from No. 12 to No. 10 in the final rankings and grabbed the controversial at-large bid out of the grasp of the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame dropped a spot and will now stay home for the postseason for the first time since 2016, but again, it is their decision to not play in a bowl game.
Notre Dame began the season with two close losses. Yes, one loss was to Miami who won by three points in the first game of the season, and Texas A&M got a one-point win over N.D. the next week. From there, Notre Dame won 10 straight games to finish the season 10-2, and certainly worthy of at least a bowl game if not a spot in the CFP.
Besides the OU-Alabama game, the other first-round games feature No. 12 seed James Madison at No. 5 Oregon, with the winner scheduled to play Texas Tech, No. 11 seed Tulane at No. 6 seed Ole Miss and the winner will play Georgia, and No. 10 seed Miami at No. 7 seed Texas A&M and the winner of this game will play Ohio State.
ALSO DECLINING A BOWL GAME
Like Notre Dame, Iowa State and Kansas State have also announced they will not accept a bowl game invitation, and because of that, the Big 12 Conference said it will fine both universities $500,000 each for opting out of bowl participation. Both schools are going through coaching transitions with Matt Campbell leaving Iowa State for Penn State and Chris Klieman announcing his retirement.
“While the conference acknowledges the difficult timing around coaching changes, the Big 12 is responsible for fulfilling its contractual obligations to its bowl partners,” the Big 12 said in a statement.
Iowa State announced that its players voted to not play in a bowl because they don’t have enough healthy players to safely practice and play. The Cyclones sustained numerous injuries this season while going 8-4.
Kansas State was 6-6 this season and athletic director Gene Taylor said he spoke with the players and the Big 12 before making this decision.
“This decision was not taken lightly, but with our coaching staff transition and several uncertainties regarding player availability, I felt it was not in our best interest to try to field a team that was not representative of Kansas State University,” Taylor said. “We applaud this group for fighting back from a 2-4 record to lead us to bowl eligibility yet again, and we are happy that our seniors were able to go out on top with a victory inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium.”
TULSA BEACON RADIO
Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week, my guest will be concert pianist and just an all-around great guest, Donal Ryan. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.