The New Year’s Six bowl games this season features both newcomers and conference title game losers looking to end their seasons on a high note.
Baylor and Georgia will attempt to bounce back from losses in their respective conference championship games when they face each other in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in New Orleans.
Both teams watched their hopes for reaching the College Football Playoff end Saturday. Baylor fell 30-23 in overtime to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game, while Georgia lost the Southeastern Conference championship game 37-10 to LSU.
Georgia is trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s hangover effect. The Bulldogs followed up their 35-28 SEC championship game loss to Alabama last year by falling 28-21 to 12 ½-point underdog Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
Baylor’s Sugar Bowl berth continues the program’s remarkable resurgence under coach Matt Rhule. Baylor went 1-11 the year before Rhule’s arrival and is the first Power Five team to win 11 games within two seasons of losing 11.
Virginia and Florida are headed to the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Dec. 30. It’s the first matchup in football between the schools since 1959.
Florida earned its way to the game after going 10-2 in the regular season and losing only to Georgia and playoff-bound LSU. It’s the fourth Orange Bowl for the Gators and the fifth time they will play in a game hosted by the Orange Bowl Committee.
Virginia got in as the ACC’s representative despite a big loss in the league title game to defending national champion Clemson. This is the first Orange Bowl for the Cavaliers, who turned down an invitation to play in the 1952 game because of the school’s desire at that time to avoid being part of major college football.
The Cavaliers are 9-4 and could tie a school record for wins if they beat the Gators.
Oregon will face Wisconsin in the 106th edition of the Rose Bowl. These schools are regular New Year’s Day visitors to Pasadena: Wisconsin is in the Rose Bowl for the fourth time in 10 seasons, albeit the first in seven years, while Oregon earned its fourth berth in 11 seasons.
This game is a rematch of the 2012 Rose Bowl, in which Oregon beat Wisconsin 45-38 in one of the highest-scoring editions of the game.
Wisconsin edged out Penn State for the Big Ten’s berth in the Granddaddy of Them All despite the Badgers’ 34-21 loss to Ohio State in the conference title game. The Badgers and the Nittany Lions finished with the same regular-season record, and Wisconsin gave a tough game to the playoff-bound Buckeyes before falling.
Oregon has reached the Rose Bowl four times in 11 years under three coaches, winning two of those first three trips. The Ducks won the Pac-12 title for the first time in five years, and they are back in Pasadena for the first time since that 2014 season, when Marcus Mariota propelled Oregon to a 59-20 thrashing of Florida State and a subsequent spot in the national championship game.
Memphis is going to the Cotton Bowl to represent the Group of Five teams after winning the American Athletic Conference title. The Tigers (12-1) will play Big Ten team Penn State (10-2) on Dec. 28 at AT&T Stadium, the home stadium of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
After the best four-year stretch in Tigers history, they are playing in their first New Year’s Six game. Their coach, Mike Norvell, is leaving for Florida State but he has indicated that he wants to coach Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.
Penn State is going to its fourth Cotton Bowl, but its first in 45 years: The Nittany Lions’ last Cotton Bowl was a 41-20 win over Baylor on New Year’s Day 1975. The Nittany Lions have made it to a bowl in all six seasons under coach James Franklin, who just reached an agreement on a new six-year contract. This will be Penn State’s 50th bowl overall.
Memphis is in a bowl for the sixth year in a row, and 12th in school history.
One teams unusually absent from the CFP and New Year’s Six games is Alabama, who will face Michigan in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1.
It’s the Crimson Tide’s first Citrus Bowl since 1995, when they took down Ohio State. Michigan is making their sixth visit to the Citrus Bowl, where they’re 4-1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.