A total of 29 bowl games, including the College Football Playoff semi-finals and championship, are scheduled to take place beginning Dec. 21 with the Myrtle Beach Bowl and ending Jan. 11 with the College Football Playoff National Championship in Miami. Of the 29 bowls, 14 of the bowls will include at least one team from the Group of Five conferences.

The New Year’s Six spot for the Group of Five went to Cincinnati, who was the winners of the American Athletic Conference.  The Bearcats will play Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day. 

Two other bowl games will pit G5 schools against a Power Five school including C-USA champion UAB versus the SEC’s South Carolina in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl and AAC runner-up Tulsa versus another SEC school in Mississippi State in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.

A couple of highlighted games include those that won their conferences.

Two Group of five champions in San Jose State from the Mountain West and Ball State from the MAC will meet in the Arizona Bowl.

Coastal Carolina, who was the co-champions of the Sun Belt will meet one-loss Liberty in the Cure Bowl. Those two schools were scheduled to meet in the regular season but Liberty had to cancel the game due to COVID-19 reasons.

The other Sun Belt co-champions of Louisiana will play the C-USA’s UTSA in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl.

Sixteen bowl games (see list below) this year were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and 21 schools in total from all of the the FBS opted out or could not play due to COVID-19 breakouts for a bowl game this year including three from the G5 (Boise State, San Diego State, and SMU (was due to COVID-19). 

Army, which was the first school to be selected for a bowl game, was left searching for a bowl game now as its bowl game (Independence Bowl) decided to cancel the game as the opponent for Army was set to be a Pac-12 school but that conference did not field enough schools due to schools opting out.

This year allowed teams that finished with losing records to be considered and three G5 teams (Houston, North Texas and Western Kentucky) will be playing in bowl games. 

Below is the full list of bowl games for the 2020-21 bowl season involving Group of Five squads:

Dec. 21

Myrtle Beach Bowl
Appalachian State vs. North Texas
Brooks Stadium (Conway, South Carolina)
2:30 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 22

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Nevada vs. Tulane
Albertsons Stadium (Boise, Idaho)
3:30 p.m. | ESPN

Boca Raton Bowl
UCF vs. BYU
FAU Stadium (Boca Raton, Florida)
7 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 23

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Louisiana Tech vs. Georgia Southern
Mercedes-Benz Superdome (New Orleans, Louisiana)
3 p.m. | ESPN

Montgomery Bowl
Memphis vs. FAU
Cramton Bowl (Montgomery, Alabama)
7 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 24

New Mexico Bowl
Hawai’i vs. Houston
Toyota Stadium (Frisco, Texas)
3:30 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 25

Camellia Bowl
Buffalo vs. Marshall
Cramton Bowl (Montgomery, Alabama)
2:30 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 26

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl
UAB vs. South Carolina
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
12 p.m. | ABC

Cure Bowl
Coastal Carolina vs. Liberty
Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
12 p.m. | ESPN

SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
Louisiana vs. UTSA
Gerald J. Ford Stadium (Dallas, Texas)
3:30 p.m. | ABC

LendingTree Bowl
Western Kentucky vs. Georgia State
Ladd-Peebles Stadium (Mobile, Alabama)
3:30 p.m. | ESPN

Dec. 31

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Tulsa vs. Mississippi State
Amon G. Carter Stadium (Fort Worth, Texas)
12 p.m. | ESPN

Arizona Bowl
San Jose State vs. Ball State
Arizona Stadium (Tucson, Arizona)
2 p.m. | CBSSN

Jan. 1

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Cincinnati vs. Georgia
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia)
12 p.m. | ESPN

CANCELED BOWL GAMES

Below are the bowl games canceled due to COVID-19 reasons (either directly where the bowl is located or not having enough schools to fill the bowl slot) and shows the conference affiliations:

Birmingham Bowl
ACC vs. SEC

Frisco Bowl
SMU vs. UTSA

Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Big 12 vs. Pac-12

Bahamas Bowl
C-USA vs. MAC

Celebration Bowl
MEAC vs. SWAC

Fenway Bowl
AAC vs. ACC

Hawaii Bowl
AAC vs. Mountain West

Holiday Bowl
ACC vs. Pac-12

Independence Bowl
Army vs. TBD

Las Vegas Bowl
Pac-12 vs. SEC

Los Angeles Bowl
Pac-12 vs. Mountain West

Military Bowl
ACC vs. American

Pinstripe Bowl
ACC vs. Big Ten

Quick Lane Bowl
ACC, Big Ten, MAC

Redbox Bowl
Big Ten vs. Pac-12

Sun Bowl
ACC vs. Pac-12