New Years’ Six Bowl Games
| Cotton Bowl Classic | Sat, Dec 28, Noon | Baylor | vs | Memphis |
| Orange Bowl | Mon, Dec 30, 8:00 PM | Virginia Tech | vs | Penn State |
| Rose Bowl Game | Wed, Jan 1, 5:00 PM | Minnesota | vs | Utah |
| Sugar Bowl | Wed, Jan 1, 8:45 PM | Alabama | vs | Oklahoma |
The NY6 bowls are straightforward enough. The Rose Bowl gets the highest teams from the Big Ten and Pac 12, while the Sugar Bowl gets the same from the SEC and Big 12.
The ACC finally has a second ranked team, so we’ll put Virginia Tech into the Orange Bowl. The other Orange Bowl slot goes to the highest-ranked remaining Big Ten or SEC team, which is currently Penn State.
The highest remaining at-large is Baylor, and the Bears face the current highest-ranked Group of 5 team, Memphis.
Other Big Ten Bowl Games
| Quick Lane Bowl | Thu, Dec 26, 8:00 PM | Michigan State | vs | Toledo |
| Pinstripe Bowl | Fri, Dec 27, 3:20 PM | Illinois | vs | Wake Forest |
| Holiday Bowl | Fri, Dec 27, 8:00 PM | Michigan | vs | USC |
| Redbox Bowl | Mon, Dec 30, 12:30 PM | Iowa | vs | Arizona State |
| Outback Bowl | Wed, Jan 1, 1:00 PM | Indiana | vs | Kentucky |
| Gator Bowl | Thu, Jan 2, 7:00 PM | Tennessee | vs | Wisconsin |
As I explain in the final section and in this article, Indiana moves up to the Outback Bowl because there isn’t really much other choice. The ACC did not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill its Quick Lane Bowl slot, and I’m putting Toledo in for now as a replacement team, as the MAC has a secondary tie-in.