Bowl game

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In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tournament to determine an annual national champion, instead relying on a vote by sportswriters or coaches. In place of such a playoff, cities developed regional festivals featuring bowls. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals. Despite the move to establish a permanent system to determine the FBS national champion on the field (the Bowl Coalition, 1992-1994; the Bowl Alliance 1995-1997; the Bowl Championship Series, 1998-2013; and the College Football Playoff, 2014-present), some bowls are still held.

Bowls originally featured the very best teams in college football, with strict bowl eligibility requirements for teams to receive invitations to participate. The number grew from 10 team-competitive (as compared to all-star) bowls in 1971 to 43 in 2023. Now the NCAA allows teams with 6–6 records and, since the 2001 season, sometimes even losing 5–6 and 5–7 seasons to participate to fill the slots. More than a quarter of 2023 bowl teams did not have winning records.

The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl stadium, site of the first postseason college football games. The Rose Bowl Stadium, in turn, takes its name and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States. The term has since become almost synonymous with any major American football event, generally college football, with some significant exceptions. Two examples are the Egg Bowl, the annual game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels, and the Iron Bowl, the annual game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers. In professional football, the National Football League (NFL) holds the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl.

The term has crossed over into both Canadian football and North American soccer. A notable example is the annual Banjo Bowl between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). In U Sports football, the two national semi-final games are named the Mitchell Bowl and the Uteck Bowl. Many North American soccer championship matches were titled the 'Soccer Bowl', including the United States men's college soccer championship from 1950 to 1952, the North American Soccer League championship from 1975 to 1984, and the North American Soccer League (II) championship from 2013 to 2017.