2012–13 NCAA football bowl games
The 2012–13 NCAA football bowl games were a series of college football bowl games. They concluded the 2012 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and included 35 team-competitive games and four all-star games. The games began on Saturday December 15, 2012 and, aside from the all-star games, concluded with the 2013 BCS National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida that was played on January 7, 2013.
| 2012–13 NCAA football bowl games | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bowl sites by state | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Regular season | August 30, 2012 – December 8, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of bowls | 35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All-star games | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowl games | December 15, 2012 – February 5, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National Championship | 2013 BCS National Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location of Championship | Sun Life Stadium Miami Gardens, FL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Champions | Alabama Crimson Tide | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowl Challenge Cup winner | Conference USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The total of 35 team-competitive bowls was unchanged from the previous year. While bowl games had been the purview of only the very best teams for nearly a century, this was the seventh consecutive year that teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games. To fill the 70 available team-competitive bowl slots, a total of 13 teams (19% of all participants) with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—12 had a .500 (6-6) season and, for the second consecutive year, a team with a sub-.500 (6-7) season was invited to a bowl game.