1995–96 NCAA football bowl games

Season

1995

Number of bowls

Bowl games

December 14, 1995 –
January 2, 1996

National Championship

Fiesta Bowl

Location of Championship

Sun Devil Stadium
Tempe, Arizona

Champions

Nebraska

Bowl record by conference
Conference	Bowls	Record	Final AP Poll
Big Ten	6	2–4 (0.333)	5
SEC	6	2–4 (0.333)	4
Pac-10	5	1–4 (0.200)	2
Big Eight	4	4–0 (1.000)	4
ACC	4	3–1 (0.750)	2
SWC	3	2–1 (0.667)	3
Big East	2	2–0 (1.000)	3
WAC	2	0–2 (0.000)	0
MAC	1	1–0 (1.000)	1
Big West	1	0–1 (0.000)	0

←1994–95
Bowl game
1996–97→

The 1995–96 NCAA football bowl games concluded the 1995 NCAA Division I-A football season. In the first year of the Bowl Alliance era, the Alliance achieved its goal of matching the two top-ranked teams in the country in the Fiesta Bowl, designated as the Bowl Alliance national championship game for the 1995 season. Top-ranked Nebraska soundly defeated second-ranked Florida 62–24 to repeat as national champions.

A total of 18 bowl games were played from December 14 through January 2 by 36 bowl-eligible teams.^[1] This was one fewer than the 19 bowls played in 1993–94 and 1994–95, as the Freedom Bowl dissolved after 1994.

Adopted for this postseason, overtime was used for the first time in Division I-A in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 14.^[2]

Non-Bowl Alliance bowls

Date	Time (EST)	TV	Game	Site	Result	Ref.
Dec 14	9:00 PM	ESPN	Las Vegas Bowl	Sam Boyd Stadium Las Vegas, NV	No. 25 Toledo 40, Nevada 37 (OT)	^[2]
Dec 25	3:30 PM	ABC	Aloha Bowl	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI	No. 11 Kansas 51, UCLA 30
Dec 27	9:00 PM	ESPN	Copper Bowl	Arizona Stadium Tucson, AZ	Texas Tech 55, Air Force 41
Dec 28	8:00 PM	ESPN	Alamo Bowl	Alamodome San Antonio, TX	No. 19 Texas A&M 22, No. 14 Michigan 20
Dec 29	2:30 PM	CBS	Sun Bowl	Sun Bowl El Paso, TX	Iowa 38, No. 20 Washington 18
	5:30 PM	ESPN	Independence Bowl	Independence Stadium Shreveport, LA	LSU 45, Michigan State 26
	9:00 PM	ESPN	Holiday Bowl	Jack Murphy Stadium San Diego, CA	No. 10 Kansas State 54, Colorado State 21
Dec 30	12:00 PM	ESPN	Liberty Bowl	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Memphis, TN	East Carolina 19, Stanford 13
	7:30 PM	TBS	Carquest Bowl	Joe Robbie Stadium Miami Gardens, FL	North Carolina 20, No. 24 Arkansas 10
	8:00 PM	ESPN	Peach Bowl	Georgia Dome Atlanta, GA	No. 18 Virginia 34, Georgia 27
Jan 1	11:00 AM	ESPN	Outback Bowl	Tampa Stadium Tampa, FL	No. 15 Penn State 43, No. 16 Auburn 14
	1:00 PM	ABC	Florida Citrus Bowl	Florida Citrus Bowl Orlando, FL	No. 4–T Tennessee 20, No. 4–T Ohio State 14^{[note 1]}
	1:00 PM	NBC	Gator Bowl	Jacksonville Municipal Stadium Jacksonville, FL	Syracuse 41, No. 23 Clemson 0
	1:30 PM	CBS	Cotton Bowl Classic	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX	No. 7 Colorado 38, No. 12 Oregon 6
	5:00 PM	ABC	Rose Bowl	Rose Bowl Pasadena, CA	No. 17 USC 41, No. 3 Northwestern 32
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game. All times are in Eastern Time.^[4]

Bowl Alliance bowls

Date	Time	Game	Site	Result
Dec 31	7:30 PM	Sugar Bowl	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA	No. 13 Virginia Tech 28, No. 9 Texas 10
Jan 1	8:00 PM	Orange Bowl	Miami Orange Bowl Miami, FL	No. 8 Florida State 31, No. 6 Notre Dame 26
Jan 2	8:30 PM	Fiesta Bowl (championship game)	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ	No. 1 Nebraska 62, No. 2 Florida 24
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game. All times are in Eastern Time.^[4]

Notes

^ Tennessee and Ohio State were tied at fourth in the pre-bowl AP Poll.^[3]

References

^ "1995 College Football Bowl Games". Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Tait's 4 TDs lift Toledo". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. December 15, 1995. p. 5C.
^ "December 5, 1995 AP Football Poll". College Poll Archive. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Bowl Schedule". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. December 4, 1995. p. 43 – via Newspapers.com.

1995–96 NCAA football bowl game season

Las Vegas (Dec. 15)
Aloha (Dec. 25)
Copper (Dec. 27)
Alamo (Dec. 28)
Independence (Dec. 29)
Sun (Dec. 29)
Holiday (Dec. 29)
Liberty (Dec. 30)
Carquest (Dec. 30)
Peach (Dec. 30)
Gator (Jan. 1)
Outback (Jan. 1)
Cotton (Jan. 1)
Florida Citrus (Jan. 1)
Rose (Jan. 1)

Bowl Alliance games: Sugar (Dec. 31)
Orange (Jan. 1)
Fiesta (Jan. 2)

v t e NCAA football bowl seasons
1901–02 1902–14 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24

NCAA football bowl seasons