How Big Ten Has Fared in 2025 College Football Bowl Games: Record and Full Schedule

As one of the Power 4 conferences in college football, the Big Ten is well represented across the 2025 postseason.

Of the Big Ten’s 18 programs, three claimed spots in the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket and an additional nine teams won at least six games to become bowl eligible. Just six teams missed out on the postseason entirely: Rutgers (5–7), Wisconsin (4–8), Maryland (4–8), Michigan State (4–8), UCLA (3–9) and Purdue (2–10).

Big Ten newcomer Washington kicked off the entire bowl schedule Dec. 13 with a 38–10 blowout win over Boise State at SoFi Stadium. That started a run of six straight Big Ten bowl wins. Oregon cruised to a 51–34 victory over James Madison in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and Northwestern and Minnesota earned wins Dec. 26 in the GameAbove Sports Bowl and Rate Bowl. The following day, Penn State kept the Big Ten’s undefeated streak alive with a dominant 22–10 win over Clemson in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. And on Dec. 30, Illinois walked off winners in the Music City Bowl on a last-second field goal to beat Tennessee.

The Big Ten stayed undefeated in the 2025 postseason until USC lost 30–27 to TCU in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 30.

Let’s take a closer look at how these Big Ten teams performed in the postseason:

SEC bowl game record | ACC bowl game record | Big 12 bowl game record

Big Ten record in 2025 bowl games

The Big Ten’s record in bowl games in 2025 was 11–5, led the Indiana’s three CFP wins on their way to a national championship. In 2024, the Big Ten went 11–6 in bowl games and boasted the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes, who won four games in the College Football Playoff en route to the title.

2025 Big Ten bowl games: Results and full schedule

Final scores

Saturday, Dec. 13

L.A. Bowl: Washington 38, Boise State 10 (W, 1–0)

Saturday, Dec. 20

CFP first round: No. 5 Oregon 51, No. 24 James Madison 34 (W, 2–0)

Friday, Dec. 26

GameAbove Sports Bowl: Northwestern 34, Central Michigan 7 (W, 3–0)
Rate Bowl: Minnesota 20, New Mexico 17 (OT) (W, 4–0)

Saturday, Dec. 27

Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State 22, Clemson 10 (W, 5–0)

Tuesday, Dec. 30

Music City Bowl: Illinois 30, Tennessee 28 (W, 6–0)
Alamo Bowl: TCU 30, No. 16 USC 27 (L, 6–1)

Wednesday, Dec. 31

ReliaQuest Bowl: No. 23 Iowa 34, No. 14 Vanderbilt 27 (W, 7–1)
Citrus Bowl: No. 13 Texas 41, No. 18 Michigan 27 (L, 7–2)
Las Vegas Bowl: No. 15 Utah 44, Nebraska 22 (L, 7–3)
Cotton Bowl (CFP quarterfinal): No. 10 Miami 24, No. 2 Ohio State 14 (L, 7–4)

Thursday, Jan. 1

Orange Bowl (CFP quarterfinal): No. 5 Oregon 23, No. 4 Texas Tech 0 (W, 8–4)
Rose Bowl (CFP quarterfinal): No. 1 Indiana 38, No. 9 Alabama 3 (W, 9–4)

Upcoming bowl games

Friday, Jan. 9

Peach Bowl (CFP semifinal): No. 1 Indiana 56, No. 5 Oregon 22 (W and L, 10–5)

Monday, Jan. 19

National championship: No. 1 Indiana 27, No. 10 Miami 21 (W, 11–5)

How Big Ten has fared in bowl games over the last 10 years

The Big Ten has posted a winning record in bowl games for the last nine years, dating back to a 3–7 finish in 2016.

YEAR	RECORD	WIN %
2016	3-7	.300
2017	7-1	.875
2018	5-4	.556
2019	4-5	.444
2020	3-2	.600
2021	6-4	.600
2022	5-4	.556
2023	6-4	.600
2024	11–6	.647
2025	11–5	.688