how many college bowl games are there

There are 36 traditional college bowl games , plus 11 College Football Playoff (CFP) games , for a total of 47 postseason games in the 2025–26 season.

Quick Scoop

• The 2025–26 bowl season includes 36 non‑CFP bowls (all the named, standalone bowl games fans are used to).

• On top of that, the expanded 12‑team CFP adds 11 games (4 first‑round, 4 quarterfinals, 2 semifinals, 1 national championship).

• Altogether, that makes 47 college football postseason games at the FBS level for 2025–26.

Why the number looks confusing

• Many fans still think in terms of “around 40–42 bowls,” because that was the range for several recent seasons before the expanded playoff.

• Now, some lists only count the traditional bowls , while others include all CFP games as part of “bowl season,” which is how you get higher totals like 47.

Mini context: TV and exposure

• ESPN notes that 42 of the 47 postseason games (bowls plus CFP) air on the ESPN/ABC family of networks, which drives much of the growth and persistence of these games.

• For many schools, even lower‑tier bowls are valuable for extra practices, recruiting exposure, and TV revenue, which helps explain why the count has stayed high.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.