2011-2012 College Football Bowl Game Schedule

It’s an SEC showdown for college football’s national championship when No. 1 LSU meets No. 2 Alabama on Jan. 9 in New Orleans. The SEC sent a whopping nine teams to post-season play.

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ESPN is broadcasting the bulk of the BCS bowl games, some of which sport names that could be mistaken for parodies, i.e., the New Era Pinstripe Bowl (Iowa St. vs. Rutgers), the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl (Florida vs. Ohio St.) and the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl (Florida International vs. Marshall).

Not even the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, can escape a wacky bowl name but at least it managed to give its corporate sponsor second billing — the Rose Bowl presented by VIZI.

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Also of note, in spite of months of controversy over a child sex abuse scandal by longtime former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, and the firing of university institution Joe Paterno, Penn St. made the cut and faces Houston in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2.

The complete 2011-2012 college football bowl schedule is below.

DEC. 17

Gildan New Mexico Bowl — Albuquerque, NM
Wyoming vs. Temple
2 p.m. ET, ESPN

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl — Boise, ID
Ohio vs. Utah State
5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl — New Orleans, LA
San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 20

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl — St. Petersberg, FL
Florida International vs. Marshall
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 21

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl — San Diego, CA
TCU vs. Louisiana Tech
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 22

MAACO Bowl Las Vegas — Las Vegas, NV
Boise State vs. Arizona State
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 24

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl — Honolulu, HI
Southern Mississippi vs. Nevada
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 26

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl — Shreveport, LA
North Carolina vs. Missouri
5 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 27

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl — Detroit, MI
Purdue vs. Western Michigan
4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Belk Bowl — Charlotte, NC
North Carolina State vs. Louisville
8 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 28

Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman — Washington, D.C.
Toledo vs. Air Force
4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl — San Diego, CA
California (U.C. Berkeley) vs. Texas
8 p.m. ET ESPN

DEC. 29

Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State vs. Notre Dame — Orlando, FL
5:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Valero Alamo Bowl — San Antonio, TX
Baylor vs. Washington
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 30

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl — Dallas, TX
BYU vs. Tulsa
12 p.m. ET, ESPN

New Era Pinstripe Bowl — New York, NY
Iowa State vs. Rutgers
3:20 p.m. ET, ESPN

Franklin Am. Mortgage Music City Bowl — Nashville, TN
Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest
6:40 p.m. ET, ESPN

Insight Bowl — Tempe, AZ
Iowa vs. Oklahoma
10 p.m. ET, ESPN

DEC. 31

AutoZone Liberty Bowl — Memphis, Tenn.
Vanderbilt vs. Cincinnati
3:30 p.m. ET, ABC

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl — San Francisco, CA
Illinois vs. UCLA
3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Chick-fil-A Bowl — Atlanta, GA
Virginia vs. Auburn
7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl — Houston, TX
Texas A&M vs. Northwestern
12 p.m. ET, ESPN

Hyundai Sun Bowl — El Paso, TX
Georgia Tech vs. Utah
2 p.m. ET, CBS

JAN. 2

TicketCity Bowl — Dallas, TX
Penn State vs. Houston
12 p.m. ET, ESPNU

Outback Bowl — Tampa, FL
Michigan St. vs. Georgia
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl — Jacksonville, FL
Florida vs. Ohio State
1 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Capital One Bowl — Orlando, FL
South Carolina vs. Nebraska
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

Rose Bowl presented by VIZIO — Pasadena, CA
Wisconsin vs. Oregon
5 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl — Glendale, AZ
Oklahoma State vs. Stanford
8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 3

Allstate Sugar Bowl — New Orleans, LA
Michigan vs. Virginia Tech
8: 30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 4

Discover Orange Bowl — Miami, FL
Clemson vs. West Virginia
8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 6

AT&T Cotton Bowl — Arlington, TX
Arkansas vs. Kansas St.
8 p.m. ET, Fox

JAN. 7

BBVA Compass Bowl — Birmingham, AL
Pittsburgh vs. SMU
1 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 8
GoDaddy.com Bowl — Mobile, AL
Northern Illinois vs. Arkansas State
9 p.m. ET, ESPN

JAN. 9

Allstate BCS National Championship Game — New Orleans, LA
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama
8:30 p.m., ESPN