Christmas Day has come and gone but there is some good news. It might be Tuesday, but college football has a couple of bowl games to brighten your day with some mid-week action. What bowl games are today, December 26th? Here’s a look at the college football schedule, matchups, streaming options, and more.
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Dec. 26: What College Football Bowl Games Are Today?
We have three bowl games on today including programs like Kansas, Texas State, and Minnesota. Let’s look at the games. If you’re looking for the rest of the bowl games this year, take a look at our College Football Schedule for bowl season.
Quick Lane Bowl
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
Guaranteed Rate Bowl
How to Watch or Stream College Football Bowl Games
You can watch today’s games on ESPN if you have a cable TV provider or you can get the games on any device on ESPN+. We’ve got you covered if you need to get ESPN+ to stream the games.
College Football Schedule: Matchups for Dec. 26th
We see the Quick Lane Bowl, First Responder Bowl, and Guaranteed Rate Bowl on the schedule today. Let’s take a quick look at the matchups.
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Bowling Green vs Minnesota (-3.5)
The Quick Lane Bowl sees a 5-7 Minnesota team reach bowl season due to a lack of teams being eligible. The season came undone down the stretch for the Golden Gophers and now they will try to end the season on a good note. At one point, Minnesota was 5-3 and in a good position to reach the Big Ten title game out of the West Division. Things didn’t go exactly as planned to finish the year.
Cole Kramer is going to start at quarterback now that Athan Kaliakmanis has entered the transfer portal. Kramer played limited time during the 2023 season. Running back Darius Taylor (591 yards, 4 TDs) is questionable with an injury. Wide receiver Daniel Jackson will be Kramer’s top target as he caught 57 passes for over 800 yards with eight scores this year.
Bowling Green finished the year winning five of the last six games. Connor Bazelak was solid at QB as he threw for 1,709 yards with 11 touchdowns. Running back Terion Stewart (762 yards, 8 TD) is questionable for the bowl matchup with a leg injury. A 32-31 loss to Toledo was the only thing that kept Bowling Green from riding a six-game winning streak to end the season.
Rice vs Texas State (-6)
Rice (6-6) and Texas State (7-5) meet in the First Responder Bowl with Texas State sitting as the favorites. Texas State was 5-2 in 2023 before they suffered tough losses to Troy, Coastal Carolina, and Arkansas State leading them to finish at 7-5.
The offense can score and has firepower including quarterback TJ Finely. He threw for 3,188 yards and 24 touchdowns to lead Texas State while also running for five touchdowns. Receivers Joey Hobert and Ashtyn Hawks each had over 800 yards receiving.
Running back Ismail Mahdi was a beast as he went for over 1,200 yards this season. He added 10 rushing touchdowns and even had a 200+ yard performance vs Louisiana Lafayette.
Rice starting quarterback JT Daniels retired at the end of the regular season due to injuries. Alex Padgett will start the bowl game after also starting the final three games of the season. He threw seven touchdowns this year. Wide receiver Luke McCaffrey is a big play threat as he had 963 yards and 12 touchdowns this year.
UNLV vs Kansas (-12.5)
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl pits Kansas (8-4) vs UNLV (9-4). The UNLV Rebels won eight of nine games after losing to Michigan in week 2 on their way to a 9-3 regular season record. They lost the Mountain West Title Game to Boise State.
Ricky White had a tremendous season at WR for UNLV as he caught 82 passes for 1,394 yards. He added seven touchdowns. He was the main target for quarterback Jayden Maiava who threw 14 touchdowns on the year.
Kansas is hoping Jalon Daniels can play in the bowl game. He played in just three games this season at QB due to injuries after having 25 total touchdowns a season ago. Kansas was 7-2 before losses to Kansas State and Texas Tech knocked the Jayhawks down the Big 12 standings.
Running back Devin Neal has been great all season long with over 1,200 yards and 15 rushing scores. He had six games where he went over 100 yards rushing.
