<P> The first bowl game was the 1902 Rose Bowl, played between Michigan and Stanford; Michigan won 49 - 0 . It ended when Stanford requested and Michigan agreed to end it with 8 minutes on the clock . That game was so lopsided that the game was not played annually until 1916, when the Tournament of Roses decided to reattempt the postseason game . The term "bowl" originates from the shape of the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, which was built in 1923 and resembled the Yale Bowl, built in 1915 . This is where the name came into use, as it became known as the Rose Bowl Game . Other games came along and used the term "bowl", whether the stadium was shaped like a bowl or not . </P> <P> At the Division I FBS level, teams must earn the right to be bowl eligible by winning at least 6 games during the season (teams that play 13 games in a season, which is allowed for Hawaii and any of its home opponents, must win 7 games). They are then invited to a bowl game based on their conference ranking and the tie - ins that the conference has to each bowl game . For the 2009 season, there were 34 bowl games, so 68 of the 120 Division I FBS teams were invited to play at a bowl . These games are played from mid-December to early January and most of the later bowl games are typically considered more prestigious . </P> <P> After the Bowl Championship Series, additional all - star bowl games round out the post-season schedule through the beginning of February . </P> <P> Partly as a compromise between both bowl game and playoff supporters, the NCAA created the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in 1998 in order to create a definitive National Championship game for college football . The series included the four most prominent bowl games (Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl), while the National Championship game rotated each year between one of these venues . The BCS system was slightly adjusted in 2006, as the NCAA added a fifth game to the series, called the National Championship Game . This allowed the four other BCS bowls to use their normal selection process to select the teams in their games while the top two teams in the BCS rankings would play in the new National Championship Game . </P>

Who plays the first college football game this year