<P> The total of 40 team - competitive bowls, including the national championship game, was one less than the previous year, with the folding of the Poinsettia Bowl . To fill the 78 available bowl slots, a total of 15 teams (19% of all participants) with non-winning (6--6) seasons participated in bowl games . This marks only the second time in seven years that no teams with losing seasons (6--7 or 5--7) had to be invited to fill available bowl berths . </P> <P> The schedule for the 2017--18 bowl games is below . All times are EST (UTC − 5). </P> <P> The College Football Playoff system was used to determine a national champion of Division I FBS college football . A 13 - member committee of experts ranked the top 25 teams in the nation after each of the last seven weeks of the 2017 season . The top four teams in the final ranking played a single - elimination semifinal round, with the winners advancing to the National Championship game . </P> <P> The semifinal games were the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl . Both were played on New Year's Day, as part of a yearly rotation of three pairs of six bowls, commonly referred to as the CFP New Year's Six bowl games . Their winners advanced to the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes - Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia on January 8, 2018 . </P>

Who plays college football on new year's day