Bowl Game Tie Ins

[HawkeyeGunner]

Are the Pac add ins required to play in Pac bowls this year? Saw recent bowl guessing on ESPN and saw Wash in Sun and Usc in Alamo. From what I remember Iowa had great times in these bowls. Will they become Big bowls next year or what?

 

[guffus]

This year 2025 is supposed to be the last year that the old Pac schools go to the bowls with the old Pac-12 bowl Tie-ins.

But before they negotiate the new bowl tie-ins for 2026, they first have to settle on the format for the 2026 CFP. Will it be 12 teams? 14 teams? 16 teams? Its not settled yet.

So one idea is to just extend the old bowl contracts for one more year in 2026, but that can be confusing for a number of reasons. The main reason is the old Pac-12 is being reborn as a football conference with Wash St, Ore St, Tex St and 5 MWC schools. So if you keep the old bowl contracts, where do the new Pac schools go for their bowl?

Its just a mess.