As of 2024, there are 42 bowl games (not counting the College Football Playoff National Championship), and all are contractually obligated to offer bids to specific conferences, a situation known as a "tie-in".
Prior to 2014, the top five games in the country were chosen under the system known as the Bowl Championship Series.
4 in the final College Football playoff rankings will play in those two bowls, with the winners advancing to the CFP National Championship.
The following tie-ins formerly exist for bowls in the years they are not hosting the national semifinals: *The top Group of Five champion will be placed into one of the At-Large spots, if they are not selected to be in the CFP.
Many bowls also have contingency contracts to offer spots to other specific conferences should their first choice not be eligible.
The exclusion of conference championship games was added after UCLA, which was the Pac-12 South representative in 2011, was 6–6 and lost the conference championship game that they participated only because of USC, which won the division that year, was on NCAA probation.
The NCAA granted UCLA a waiver, and the exception appeared the following year, where the rule was used by Georgia Tech, the only eligible team among the three tied teams in the Coastal Division that was eligible for postseason because of NCAA probation, was also 6–6 and lost the conference championship game .
[citation needed] Previously, a bowl with an at-large bid to fill was required to select the remaining team with the best record over a 6–6 team that would have been more financially attractive in terms of bringing more fans to the respective bowl.
The choices are typically not predicated on end-of-season rankings or actually final regular season records/standings.
A committee may select one team over another due to geographical proximity, travel ability for the fanbase, or other factors.
Some conferences have special selection parameters written into their contracts with specific bowls—for example, the Citrus Bowl is contractually obligated to select the winningest Big Ten and SEC teams that do not make a CFP game (semifinal or New Year's Six Bowl), or a team within one win of the winningest in its conference.
If a conference has multiple teams chosen for the CFP/New Year's Six games, the remaining bowls still select in the same order.
All of these teams are eligible to be selected for a New Year's Six bowl game before accepting any other contractual bids.