College football bowl schedule for 2024-25 released

Florida ended the 2023 college football season ineligible for a bowl game, ending an eight-year run of consecutive postseason appearances for the Gators.

The goal for 2024 is simple — win six games and start a new streak of bowl appearances — and what better time to turn things around than the dawn of the 12-team playoff era?

The expansion of the College Football Playoff means a new feel to some of the sport’s most historic bowl games. To start, all New Year’s Six bowl games are part of the CFP bracket now — four quarterfinals and two semifinals, on a rotating schedule.

That means two and three-loss SEC teams can sneak into the bracket and nearly half of the top 25 will have a shot at winning it all. An expanded bracket also means starting things a week earlier. With such a backloaded schedule, the elite teams are liable to rest players early on in the season, or once they have a spot locked up.

Including CFP games and the FCS Celebration Bowl, there are 47 bowl games this year. Florida making any one of those 47 games would be a shift in the right direction under Billy Napier, especially facing the nation’s toughest schedule.

Gators fans have scoffed in years past at bids to the Gasparilla or Las Vegas Bowls. Making it to either one would be a good sign for the program in 2024, though.

Bowl Game Schedule

*as published by Sports Illustrated.

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