While the bowl season still has one more game to play, it’s safe to claim SEC as the champions of the bowl games with 8 wins in 10 games, including Alabama in the College Football Playoff and Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. The ACC (with Clemson in the other semifinal), Big Ten (Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl) and the Pac-12 (Stanford in the Rose Bowl) all have NY6 Bowl game wins, while the Big 12 finish bottom among the Power 5 conferences.
SEC: 8-2
The SEC has a chance to improve on that with Alabama playing for the national title against Clemson, following their 38-0 nothing win over Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl. Other SEC winners were Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma State, LSU against Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl, Auburn over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl, Mississippi State over North Carolina State in the Belk Bowl, Tennessee beating Northwestern in the Outback Bowl, Georgia winning against Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl and Arkansas beating Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl. Florida and Texas A&M were the only SEC teams to lose their bowl games.
Pac-12: 6-4
The Pac-12 had no team in the College Football Playoff. Their most prestigious win came in the Rose Bowl with Stanford beating Iowa. Other winners were Arizona against New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl, Utah over BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl, Washington State beating Miami in the Sun Bowl, Washington over Southern Miss in the Heart of Dallas Bowl and California against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Losers? UCLA, USC, Oregon and Arizona State.
Big Ten: 5-5
Not the yield from last year, with some low points and high points, including a loss in the college football playoff, as Michigan State got crushed by the Crimson Tide. Winners? Ohio State against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, Nebraska against UCLA in the Foster Farms Bowl, Minnesota over Central Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl, Wisconsin beating USC in the Holiday Bowl and Michigan crushing Florida in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl. Losers? Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern and Indiana.
ACC: 4-5
The ACC are currently under .500 but have Clemson playing one more game following their win against Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The other winners are Duke over Indiana in the Pinstripe Bowl, Virginia Tech against Tulsa in the Independence Bowl and Louisville beating Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl. Losers? Florida State, Miami, Pittsburgh, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
Big 12: 3-4
The worst of the power conferences in this bowl season, with Oklahoma crushed by Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinal. Oklahoma State also lost a NY6 bowl, and the two other losers were Texas Tech and Kansas State. Winners? Baylor over North Carolina in the Belk Bowl, TCU against Oregon in the Alamo Bowl and West Virginia over Arizona State in the Cactus Bowl.
The Mountain West Conference stands out with four winners in this bowl season, with one of the wins coming against the American Conference (San Diego State over Cincinnati) and the other in a game with both teams from the MWC (Nevada beating Colorado State). There’s no conference without a win although the American did the worse in terms of percentage (25% out of 8 games). No independent team (two made the bowl games) won.
Full Conference Standings
| Conference | Bowls | Record | % | ||
| SEC | 11 | 8–2 | .800 | ||
| Pac-12 | 10 | 6–4 | .600 | ||
| Big Ten | 10 | 5–5 | .500 | ||
| ACC | 10 | 4–5 | .444 | ||
| Mountain West | 8 | 4–4 | .500 | ||
| American | 8 | 2–6 | .250 | ||
| Big 12 | 7 | 3–4 | .429 | ||
| MAC | 7 | 3–4 | .429 | ||
| Conference USA | 5 | 3–2 | .600 | ||
| Sun Belt | 4 | 2–2 | .500 | ||
| Independents | 2 | 0–2 | .000 |