2013–14 NCAA football bowl games

[3] * Sun Belt does not meet minimum game requirement of three teams needed for a conference to be eligible.

If a bowl has one or more conferences/teams unable to meet their contractual commitments and there are no available bowl-eligible teams, the open spots can be filled – by the particular bowl's sponsoring agencies – as follows:[9] Under a rule change approved by the NCAA Legislative Council on May 3, 2013, teams that enter a conference championship game with a 6–6 record, with no more than one win over an FCS school, are bowl-eligible regardless of the result of the championship game, without the team having to seek an NCAA waiver.

Nine eligible teams did not receive a bowl invitation, including two with winning records: Western Kentucky (8–4), Toledo (7–5), Central Michigan (6–6), Florida Atlantic (6–6), Louisiana-Monroe (6–6), San Jose State (6–6), South Alabama (6–6), Texas State (6–6), and Troy (6–6).

Number of teams bowl ineligible: 46 Starting in 2014–15, a new system, the College Football Playoff, has been used to determine the national champion.

The new format uses a committee of 13 people to select and seed the top 12 teams.

Within this New Year's Six format, the top four seeded teams are paired in two national semi-finals, followed by a national championship game played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the semifinals, at a neutral site.