MOBILE, Ala. — As college football moves closer to a 24-team playoff, the head of the 68 Ventures Bowl says the signals coming from its partner conferences point to the Mobile bowl game staying put, even as the national postseason landscape shifts beneath it.
Several reports indicate that the College Football Playoff and its television partner are nearing a deal that would double the size of the playoff field from 12 teams to 24, possibly as soon as next season. The change would come just two years after the CFP grew from four teams to 12, and it has prompted questions around the country about what will happen to the many bowl games that sit outside the playoff.
Jerry Silverstein, president of the 68 Ventures Bowl, said he believes the Mobile game will continue if a 24-team playoff becomes reality as expected.
“We’re always concerned,” Silverstein said in a telephone interview. “But all indications from the (participating) conferences are they’re wanting to stay involved in Mobile, Alabama. They really like our bowl game and our community and what the bowl game represents as far as the student-athlete experience.”
What a 24-team playoff could look like
While a final agreement had not been announced, some details of the proposed format have been reported. They include:
- Starting the college football season one week earlier to make room for additional playoff rounds.
- Eliminating the conference championship games in the Power 4 conferences: the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference.
- Giving first-round byes to the top eight seeds.
- Continuing to play the quarterfinals and semifinals in the New Year’s 6 bowls, which are the Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Fiesta, Peach and Orange bowls.
- Playing the national championship game at selected neutral venues, as is done now.
The College Football Playoff replaced the Bowl Championship Series beginning with the 2014 season, using a four-team bracket for a decade. The field expanded to 12 teams for the 2024 season, adding on-campus first-round games and guaranteeing spots to the highest-ranked conference champions. A jump to 24 teams would mean that nearly every program with a strong season in the major conferences would have a path into the bracket.
Some observers have suggested that a bigger playoff could lead to the elimination of some bowl games across the country. Others have floated the idea that bowls outside the New Year’s 6 could be folded into the playoff schedule to host early-round games. None of those possibilities has been confirmed.
Why Group of 6 bowls see a different future
Silverstein’s confidence rests largely on the type of teams the 68 Ventures Bowl serves. The Mobile game draws from what is often called the Group of 6, the six FBS conferences outside the Power 4: the Sun Belt, Mid-American, Conference USA, American Athletic, Mountain West and Pac-12.
The bowl’s primary conference partner is the Sun Belt, with additional tie-ins to the Mid-American Conference and Conference USA. If a suitable team is not available from any of those three leagues, the game’s operator has the right to select another team.
At least one Group of 6 team earns a place in the playoff each year, and last season two of them, James Madison and Tulane, reached the CFP. But unlike NCAA Division II and Division III football, there is no separate national championship pathway designed specifically for schools in those conferences. For most of those programs, a bowl invitation is the realistic goal and reward for a successful season.
That, Silverstein said, is why bowl games remain so important to Group of 6 teams and the conferences that place them. Bowl trips give players extra practices, a week of events in a host city and a final game on national television, all of which carry weight with schools that may never compete for a playoff spot.
Bowls that may feel the squeeze
The bowls most likely to notice a difference in a 24-team world are those outside the New Year’s 6 that are used to landing highly ranked teams from the power conferences.
Last season offers a clear example. Texas, which finished No. 13 in the final CFP rankings, played in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. No. 14 Vanderbilt played in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa. Both bowls pair SEC and Big Ten teams. Texas and Vanderbilt each finished 10-3 in 2025, and under a 24-team format, both would have been selected for the playoff instead.
Those bowls will still be able to choose from SEC and Big Ten teams, but the teams available to them will likely have weaker records than in years past. Because the 68 Ventures Bowl already relies on Group of 6 conferences, and those leagues would still have only a limited number of playoff berths, the pool of teams available to Mobile would be less affected.
A long history in Mobile
This year’s game will be the 28th edition of Mobile’s bowl. The game was first played in 1999 and has carried several names over the years under different title sponsors, including the GMAC Bowl, the GoDaddy Bowl and the LendingTree Bowl, before becoming the 68 Ventures Bowl.
The game has long featured teams from outside the power conferences and has become one of the region’s signature December sporting events. It is now played at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus, the home of the South Alabama Jaguars.
Like most bowls of its kind, the game is about more than a single afternoon of football. Participating teams typically arrive in the host city several days before kickoff, filling hotel rooms and restaurants and taking part in bowl-week activities organized for players, coaches, bands and traveling fans. Those visits are a large part of what Silverstein referred to as the student-athlete experience, and they help explain why conferences value long-standing relationships with host communities.
The Sun Belt connection also carries a local angle. South Alabama is a member of the Sun Belt Conference, which serves as the bowl’s primary tie-in, giving the game a natural link to the league’s fan bases across the Gulf South and beyond.
Last year’s game produced a memorable first. Delaware, which had recently moved up from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision, made its first-ever bowl appearance and defeated Louisiana 20-13.
This year’s game and early projections
The 2026 68 Ventures Bowl is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 26, at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on national television.
With much of the regular season still to play, weekly national bowl projections disagree on who will come to Mobile. One projection this week has Louisiana Tech facing UAB, while another pairs Eastern Michigan with UAB. Projections change week to week as results come in, and bowl matchups are not finalized until after the regular season and conference championship games.
Bowl selections are typically announced in early December, after the final CFP rankings are released and the playoff field is set. Conferences and bowls then work through their agreements to place eligible teams. To be bowl-eligible, FBS teams generally need at least six wins, though exceptions can be made if there are not enough eligible teams to fill every game.
Other Alabama bowls in a similar position
Two other bowl games in Alabama share a status similar to Mobile’s, as non-playoff games that would continue to rely on the broader pool of teams.
- Salute to Veterans Bowl, Montgomery: Scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 15. One projection has Miami (Ohio) facing FIU, while another has Buffalo meeting Louisiana.
- Birmingham Bowl: Set for Tuesday, Dec. 29, with an SEC team in the lineup. One projection has Mississippi State playing Tulane, and another predicts North Carolina State against Auburn.
Where the Jaguars might land
Fans of the hometown South Alabama Jaguars have reason to keep an eye on the projections, too. Both of the national projections cited this week have South Alabama playing in a bowl game, though not in Mobile.
One projection sends the Jaguars to the Puerto Rico Bowl to face UMass. The other has South Alabama heading to the Myrtle Beach Bowl to play Liberty. As with every projection at this point in the season, those predictions depend on how the remaining games unfold.
For Silverstein and the bowl’s organizers, the immediate focus remains on preparing for the Dec. 26 game, while watching closely as the playoff’s next chapter takes shape. Based on what he has heard from the conferences involved, he expects Mobile to remain a December destination for college football for years to come.
