Wake Forest coach and family take a mayo bath (1:00)Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert and his family have mayonnaise dunked on them after beating Mississippi State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. (1:00)
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: Wake Forest 43, Mississippi State 29
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Texas State 41, Rice 10
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: Utah 44, Nebraska 22
Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl: Illinois 30, Tennessee 28
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl: Louisiana Tech 23, Coastal Carolina 14
JLab Birmingham Bowl: Georgia Southern 29, Appalachian State 10
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: North Texas 49, San Diego State 47
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl: Fresno State 18, Miami (OH) 3
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State 22, Clemson 10
Go Bowling Military Bowl: East Carolina 23, Pitt 17
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: UTSA 57, Florida International 20
GameAbove Sports Bowl: Northwestern 34, Central Michigan 7
New Orleans Bowl: Western Kentucky 27, Southern Miss 16
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Washington State 34, Utah State 21
Myrtle Beach Bowl: Western Michigan 41, Kennesaw State 6
StaffDNA Cure Bowl: Old Dominion 24, South Florida 10
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl: Jacksonville State 17, Troy 13
Cricket Celebration Bowl: South Carolina State 40, Prairie View A&M 38
The 2025-26 bowl season — non-playoff edition — has reached its end, but ESPN’s college football experts have highlighted the best performances from the past month.
We’ve picked MVPs from each of the 36 bowl games from Dec. 13 to Jan. 2. These expert picks didn’t necessarily align with the official bowl MVP, though.
Jackson polished off a strong freshman year at Texas State with a four-touchdown performance in the Bobcats’ 41-10 win over Rice. Jackson was 17 of 24 for 173 yards passing and added 14 carries for 52 yards and a 6-yard touchdown run. Jackson has already committed to run it back for Texas State next year, looking to improve on a 7-6 season after a four-game winning streak to end the year. — Wilson
It was hardly a game of offensive fireworks, but in Delaware’s first season as an FBS program, the Blue Hens won a bowl thanks in large part to the explosiveness of Silver. His 61-yard run in the first half opened the scoring, and he finished with 116 yards on 14 carries. Silver’s success on the ground helped make up for a lackluster passing performance from a team that had led Conference USA in yards through the air. It was Silver’s second 100-yard game of the season. — David Hale
Neither team had its regular QB1, but while USF’s reserves tossed four picks in the game, ODU’s Henicle did all he needed to win without making any critical miscues. Henicle finished with 127 passing yards, 107 more on the ground and a pair of touchdowns. — Hale
Smith turned in one of the great Celebration Bowl performances to help South Carolina State overcome a 21-0 halftime deficit and beat Prairie View A&M 40-38 in quadruple overtime. Smith finished with nine receptions for 152 yards and a pair of scores to go along with five carries for 28 yards and another touchdown. His 10-yard receiving touchdown with two minutes left in regulation forced overtime as part of the Bulldogs’ 35-point second half. — Bonagura
Dampier delivered the first win of the Morgan Scalley era at Utah with a complete performance against the Huskers. He threw for 310 yards on 19-of-31 passing, rushed for 148 yards on 19 attempts and scored five total touchdowns while leading the Utes to scores on six of their first seven drives. Dampier’s 458 total yards were a career high and one of the top 10 single-game performances in school history. After a wild week for the program, with longtime coach Kyle Whittingham departing for Michigan rather than coaching his bowl finale with the Utes, Dampier and his teammates finished off an 11-win season with a dominant effort. — Max Olson
Though the Longhorns didn’t close out their season in the College Football Playoff as they would have liked, Manning and his squad did put together a strong finish that should guarantee a ton of offseason hype around this program yet again entering 2026. Manning threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for a career-high 155 yards and two more scores, keeping Texas’ offense rolling despite the absence of several top playmakers. He put a one-score game away for good in the fourth quarter by burning Michigan’s defense for a 60-yard touchdown run down the middle. Manning finished his first season as Texas’ QB1 with 3,562 total yards and 37 total touchdowns. Now it’s time to make a run at a national championship in 2026. — Olson
In a game that featured more than 1,000 combined yards and six players who surpassed 100 yards, the Sun Bowl MVP wasn’t going to anyone on defense. Nobody accounted for more touchdowns in the win, though, than Mensah, who finished with four touchdown passes — the second most in a bowl game in school history. It was also Mensah’s 12th game with multiple passing touchdowns this season, the most by any player in FBS. Mensah, who led Duke to the ACC championship earlier this month, had explored entering the NFL draft but announced earlier this month he would return in 2026. — Heather Dinich
Iowa’s quarterback accounted for three touchdowns — two passing and one rushing — to punctuate his career with a win against No. 14 Vanderbilt and its Heisman runner-up quarterback, Diego Pavia. On third-and-7 with six minutes left, Gronowski completed a 19-yard pass to redshirt freshman tight end DJ Vonnahme, who emerged as Iowa’s No. 1 tight end this season. The play extended the drive, which ended in a field goal and a 10-point Hawkeyes cushion. It was Gronowski’s second game this season with multiple passing touchdowns. In his first season as the Hawkeyes’ starter after transferring from South Dakota State, Gronowski helped Iowa to its first win against an AP-ranked opponent since 2021 (vs. No. 4 Penn State). — Dinich
On third-and-20 from the 35-yard line in overtime, TCU quarterback Ken Seals found running back Payne for a safe completion out of the backfield. The intent, it appeared, was to hopefully get the Horned Frogs back into field goal range so they could tie the game at 27 and force a second overtime. Instead, Payne broke a tackle, danced past two more USC defenders, broke a second tackle and tight-walked the sideline before breaking free for a game-winning score. It was his second touchdown of the game and capped off a brilliant comeback for TCU, which trailed by 10 with less than five minutes to play in regulation. Payne finished with 13 carries for 73 yards and six catches for 50 yards. — Kyle Bonagura
Illinois quarterback Altmyer threw for a touchdown, ran for another and orchestrated the game-winning drive, leading the Illini to the program’s second straight bowl win against an SEC opponent. Altmyer’s 2-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter was his fifth rushing touchdown this season — the most in any season of his career — and gave the Illini a 24-14 lead. With 194 passing yards, Altmyer surpassed 3,000 passing yards this season, becoming the first Illinois quarterback to accomplish the feat since Nathan Scheelhaase in 2013 (3,272). Altmyer also matched his career-high 22 passing touchdowns, which he set last season. — Dinich
Kukuk, who was making his fifth start of the season, rushed for more than 100 yards and passed for more than 100, propelling the Bulldogs to their second double-digit comeback win of the season. In a mistake-laden game that featured the most combined penalties (25) and penalty yards (228) of the bowl season, Kukuk’s 52-yard touchdown pass to Marlion Jackson in the fourth quarter closed Tech’s deficit to 14-12. It was also Louisiana Tech’s longest passing touchdown this season. Kukuk started the first two games of the season before taking a back seat to Blake Baker, who suffered a season-ending injury in Week 11. — Dinich
After a back-and-forth first half defined primarily by App State turnovers, Georgia Southern seized control in the third quarter. The Eagles scored a pair of touchdowns to go up 26-7 and eventually won 29-10, and it started with a 58-yard run from Arnold. He gained 163 yards from scrimmage — his fifth game with at least 130 — and in the first-ever bowl matchup in the Deeper Than Hate rivalry, the Eagles put things away with the smallest amount of drama possible. You could give co-MVP status to Eagles defender Dorrian Smith: App State quarterbacks threw four interceptions in Georgia Southern territory, and he reeled in two of them. — Bill Connelly
After falling behind to LSU 14-0 to start the game, Houston responded emphatically in a 38-35 win. A lot of that had to do with the play of Weigman, who finished 27-of-36 with 236 yards passing and 4 touchdown passes. He also added 56 yards rushing on 13 carries. Three of Weigman’s touchdown passes came in the first half, as the Cougars roared back to lead at the half. His favorite target was Tanner Koziol, who made nine catches for 76 yards and a score, while Amare Thomas had two touchdown catches. — Bonagura
Virginia quarterback Morris didn’t deliver eye-popping numbers, nor did the Cavaliers’ offense leave much of an impression, but in key moments, Morris delivered. He finished 25-of-38 for 198 yards, but was 10-of-10 on third downs, as Virginia erased a halftime deficit to win 13-7. At his fourth school in his career, Morris helped Virginia to a school-record 11 wins this season and an appearance in the ACC title game. After allowing a touchdown on the first drive of the game, Virginia’s defense smothered Missouri the rest of the way. — Bonagura
In a high-scoring affair that featured a combined 1,150 total yards of offense, Hawkins and the Mean Green run game got the job done and secured the first 12-win season in program history. Hawkins rushed for 198 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, Ashton Gray chipped in 152 yards and two more scores, and the No. 1 scoring offense in college football lit up a top-five scoring defense for 618 total yards, with a season-high 368 yards on the ground. Hawkins, the American Conference Rookie of the Year, finished his true freshman season with 1,804 yards from scrimmage and a school-record 29 touchdowns. — Olson