Changes are coming to ESPN's bowl season schedule in 2026-27.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports has long been the home to bowl season. While there are games airing on other networks, ESPN dominates the college football postseason schedule, airing the vast majority of games.
This week, ESPN announced its full broadcasting lineup for the 2026-27 college football postseason. There are some notable changes to the bowl season schedule this year, including:
- More games airing on ABC
- No games airing on ESPN2
© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.
Awful Announcing shared the details on the changes to ESPN's college football bowl season schedule.
"ABC will air bowl game tripleheaders on Saturday, Dec. 26, and Saturday, Jan. 2. The increase comes as ABC is also airing more College Football Playoff games, including one quarterfinal, a semifinal, and the national championship for the first time this season," the outlet reported.
"The start of bowl season is moving two days later than last year. The first bowl game last season, the LA Bowl, was played on the same day as the Army-Navy Game. However, the first 2026 bowl game will be the Salute to Veterans Bowl after Army-Navy on Tuesday, Dec. 15."
ESPN's College Football Playoff schedule faces backlash
The College Football Playoff announced its official schedule for 2026-27 earlier this week - and fans aren't happy.
The first games start on Dec. 18, but the national title game doesn't happen for more than a month, until January 25.
It's too long.
"Why don't you ask the viewer what they want to see and when they want to see it? You could have polled this every week for a month and understood what would make the people happy. No one wants to watch a CFB game on a Monday," one fan argued.
"We don't need multiple weeks in between rounds and having the biggest games during the week. You're a big reason why the calendar is so messed up," one added.
"11 days between first round and first quarterfinal game (two more days for the other 3 games). Two weeks between quarterfinal and semifinal games. 10 days between semifinals and championship game. Ridiculous," one added.
Change is needed.
