There are four college football bowl games.

The first of ranked teams will play in the college bowl on Thursday. We get to explore questions like whether it is a good idea to stage football games in venues built for baseball in cold-weather cities, and if the next wave of mascots will be made of toast. It will be another busy day of watching as three more league members are in action. If the situation arises, you will just have to address that, unless one or more of these games run long and the next one has to start on another channel. The American Athletic champion is somewhat dissatisfied that they were not invited to the New Year's Six party, but they have less of a beef with the committee than Florida State. They have to face Boston College in its backyard, though it remains to be seen if there will be enough local fans in attendance to give the Eagles a home-town advantage. BC narrowly missed out on a bowl appearance in their first year in the league, but they nearly upended Florida State and qualified for their first bowl in three years. BC's dynamic QB, Thomas Castellanos, accounted for 26 total touchdown, including 11 by land, though his ball security can be a concern. If Kye Robichaux can find room, he can help with that. The running game of Jaylan Knighton will be relied on again by Kevin Jennings, who took over for injured starter Preston Stone. The BC defense struggled on third-down, but LB DePalma andDB John Pupel will be on the field a lot. It is likely that any Rutgers supporters in attendance will have come across the Hudson with the team. The Hurricanes won't be happy to be here, and they'll be missing some familiar faces on both sides of the ball. With backup quarterback Emory Williams out with an injury, the duties will fall to Jacurri Brown. The defense is led by LBs Deion Jennings and Mohamed Toure. The Hurricanes are known for their ground defense and they will have a lot of encounters with LB Francisco Mauigoa. The Wolfpack finished on a five-game winning streak and were arguably the best team in the conference at the end of the season, while the Wildcats missed a chance to take down Texas and dropped a weird finale to Iowa State. The teams should play a similar game plan, relying on sound defense and ball security instead of big plays. The K-State CB will likely pay attention to him. The game will be without a top deep threat but N.C. State will be without a top LB. The 1-11 team of two years ago overachieved in the fall. The Sooners exceeded their lower-than-usual preseason ranking but stumbled after their huge rivalry win against Texas. The potential future star of the Big 12 will look for a wide receiver, but he will have to beware of the Sooners' Billy Bowman, who has swiped six passes returning three of them to the house The spotlight will be on Jackson Arnold as he looks to make the most of this opportunity, but freshman teammate Nic Anderson will help him out. The pass rush is led by Taylor Upshaw.