Top 5 non-playoff college football bowl games in 2022-23

4. Gator Bowl: No. 21 Notre Dame football vs No. 19 South Carolina (Dec. 30)

Some people like to say that college football bowl games don’t matter. But nothing could be farther from the truth. These games matter, just not as much as some in the regular season.

However, for certain programs, bowl games are more important and one game that matters to both teams, or should, is the Gator Bowl.

Notre Dame football has been matched with South Carolina and it’s one of the few top-25 matchups outside of the New Years Six bowl games.

I love when two teams that have gotten hot at the end of the season meet in a bowl game. Both clubs are 8-4 but South Carolina has defeated Tennessee and Clemson in consecutive games. Notre Dame football also beat Clemson as well as North Carolina and Syracuse.

The Irish beat three ranked teams (at the time) and the winner of this game would be 9-4, which sounds a lot better than 8-5. Drew Pyne has said he will transfer and won’t play in this game but it sounds like Tyler Buchner (starting QB hurt in Week 2) could return for Notre Dame football which would make this game even more exciting.

Coaches talked about bowl games as a springboard and that could be true for Notre Dame. Plus, watching a talented Irish defense against Spencer Rattler would be worth watching.