The majority of the 2024-25 college football bowl season is behind us, with the College Football Playoff taking the main stage on Tuesday and Wednesday and the final non-CFP bowl games wrapping up later this week.
Of the 30 or so bowls played before today, the most-watched games all have one thing in common — they feature a team from the Big 12.
According to ESPN, the bowl season has been a massive success, as bowls are setting multi-year audience records, and viewership is up a whopping 18% year-over-year.
The top three non-CFP bowl games so far have been the Valero Alamo Bowl (8.0M viewers), Pop-Tarts Bowl (6.8M viewers), and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl (4.2M viewers), with four of the six teams participating in them coming from the Big 12.
The Alamo Bowl featured BYU and Colorado, an all-Big 12 bowl game, with the Cougars coming out winners in a 36-14 contest that was never really that close. BYU scored the first 27 points in the gameand never looked back, leading 36-7 before a garbage-time score lessened the blow for CU fans.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl — easily one of the better matchups to this point — saw Iowa State score a touchdown in the final minute of the game to beat Miami 42-41, giving the Cyclones their first 11-win season in school history.
The Liberty Bowl pitted Texas Tech against Arkansas in an old Southwest Conference rivalry, with the Razorbacks coming out on top, 39-26.
The final remaining non-CFP bowl game left on the schedule is also one of the most intriguing matchups we’ll see this year, as Baylor faces LSU in the Texas Bowl on Tuesday afternoon. That game figures to have great viewership numbers too, and will lead the Big 12 right into it’s College Football Playoff appearance on Wednesday.
Arizona State’s CFP quarterfinal matchup against Texas is set for a noon kickoff on New Year’s Day in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
