Bowling for Dollars

If you are a U.S. college football fan and like to watch Bowl games, it used to be you had one: the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl was the only major college bowl game in 1930. By 1940, there were five major college bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl (1935), the Cotton Bowl Classic (1937), the Orange Bowl (1935), and the Sun Bowl (1935). As you can imagine, the number kept going up:

Year	# of Bowl Games
1930	1
1940	5
1950	5
1960	8
1970	11
1980	15
1990	19
2000	25
2010	35

So now, in 2015, under the precept that enough is never enough, we have an amazing 40 bowls:

Name of Bowl Game	Opponents	Date & Time	Broadcaster
Cure Bowl	San Jose State vs. Georgia State	Dec. 20 @ noon	CBS Sports Network
Gildan New Mexico Bowl	Arizona vs. New Mexico	Dec. 19 @ 2 p.m.	ESPN
Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl	BYU vs. Utah	Dec. 19 @ 3:30 p.m. ET	ABC
Raycom Media Camellia Bowl	Ohio vs. Appalachian State	Dec. 19 @ 5:30 p.m.	ESPN
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl	Arkansas State vs. Louisiana Tech	Dec. 19 @ 9 p.m.	ESPN
Miami Beach Bowl	Western Kentucky vs. South Florida	Dec. 21 @ 2:30 p.m.	ESPN
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl	Akron vs. Utah State	Dec. 22 @ 3:30 p.m.	ESPN
Marmot Boca Raton Bowl	Toledo vs. Temple	Dec. 22 @ 7 p.m.	ESPN
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl	Boise State vs. Northern Illinois	Dec. 23 @ 4:30 p.m.	ESPN
GoDaddy Bowl	Georgia Southern vs. Bowling Green	Dec. 23 @ 8 p.m.	ESPN
Popeyes Bahamas Bowl	Middle Tennessee vs. Western Michigan	Dec. 24 @ noon	ESPN
Hawai'i Bowl	San Diego State vs. Cincinnati	Dec. 24 @ 8 p.m.	ESPN
St. Petersburg Bowl	Connecticut vs. Marshall	Dec. 26 @ 11 a.m.	ESPN
Hyundai Sun Bowl	Miami vs. Washington State	Dec. 26 @ 2 p.m.	CBS
Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl	Washington vs. Southern Miss	Dec. 26 @ 2:20 p.m.	ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl	Indiana vs. Duke	Dec. 26 @ 3:30 p.m.	ABC
Camping World Independence Bowl	Tulsa vs. Virginia Tech	Dec. 26 @ 5:45 p.m.	ESPN
Foster Farms Bowl	UCLA vs. Nebraska	Dec. 26 @ 9:15 p.m.	ESPN
Northrop Grumman Military Bowl	Pitt at Navy	Dec. 28 @ 2:30 p.m.	ESPN
Quick Lane Bowl	Central Michigan vs. Minnesota	Dec. 28 @ 5 p.m.	ESPN2
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl	California vs. Air Force	Dec. 29 @ 2 p.m.	ESPN
Russell Athletic Bowl	North Carolina vs. Baylor	Dec. 29 @ 5:30 p.m.	ESPN
NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl	Nevada vs. Colorado State	Dec. 29 @ 7:30 p.m.	Campus Insiders
AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl	LSU vs. Texas Tech	Dec. 29 @ 9 p.m.	ESPN
Birmingham Bowl	Auburn vs. Memphis	Dec. 30 @ noon	ESPN
Belk Bowl	NC State vs. Mississippi State	Dec. 30 @ 3:30 p.m.	ESPN
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl	Texas A&M vs. Louisville	Dec. 30 @ 7 p.m.	ESPN
Holiday Bowl	USC vs. Wisconsin	Dec. 30 @ 10:30 p.m.	ESPN
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl	Houston vs. Florida State	Dec. 31 @ noon	ESPN
Capital One Orange Bowl (Playoff Semifinal)*	Oklahoma vs. Clemson	Dec. 31 @ 8 p.m.	ESPN
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (Playoff Semifinal)*	Michigan State vs. Alabama	Dec. 31 @ 8 p.m.	ESPN
Outback Bowl	Northwestern vs. Tennessee	Jan. 1 @ noon	ESPN2
Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl	Michigan vs. Florida	Jan. 1 @ 1 p.m.	ABC
BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl	Notre Dame vs. Ohio State	Jan. 1 @ 1 p.m.	ESPN
Northwestern Mutual Rose Bowl Game	Iowa vs. Stanford	Jan. 1 @ 5 p.m.	ESPN
Allstate Sugar Bowl	Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss	Jan. 1 @ 8:30 p.m.	ESPN
Taxslayer Bowl	Penn State vs. Georgia	Jan. 2 @ noon	ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl	Kansas State vs. Arkansas	Jan. 2 @ 3:20 p.m.	ESPN
Valero Alamo Bowl	Oregon vs. TCU	Jan. 2 @ 6:45 p.m.	ESPN
Motel 6 Cactus Bowl	West Virginia vs. Arizona State	Jan. 2 @ 10:15 p.m.	ESPN
AT&T Playoff National Championship*	Orange Bowl vs. Cotton Bowl	Jan. 11 @ 8:30 p.m.	ESPN

* Games in the NCAA Football playoff and championship series.

If you took the time to count, there are actually 41 games. The final game on January 11th, the College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T, is not technically a Bowl game.