Conference still required teams to have a .500 record to be considered. Fourteen existing bowls were cancelled, either due to either travel restrictions (Bahamas Bowl and Hawaii Bowl), availability of teams (Birmingham Bowl, Frisco Bowl, Guaranteed Rate Bowl, Independence Bowl, and Military Bowl), general pandemic effects (Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl, Redbox Bowl, Sun Bowl, Gasparilla Bowl) or no formal reason (Quick Lane Bowl). The Fenway Bowl and LA Bowl postponed their debuts to the 2021–22 bowl season, with the Montgomery Bowl announced as a "substitute of the Fenway Bowl for this season only". Eighteen teams with non-losing records opted out of bowl consideration in advance of the final College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings being released on December 20: ACC: 6–5 Boston College, 6–5 Pittsburgh and 5–5 Virginia SEC: 5–5 LSU, as part of a self-imposed one-year postseason ban due to NCAA rule violations PAC-12: 2–2 Arizona State Sun Devils, 4–2 Stanford, 5–1 South Division champion USC, 3–2 Utah, and 3–1 North Division champion Washington (also foregoing the 2020 Pac-12 Football Championship Game) MAC: six teams were opted out by the conference's reported decision to only allow top two teams to go to bowl games— 3–3 Central Michigan, 3–1 Kent State, 2–1 Miami (OH), 2–1 Ohio, 4–2 Toledo and 4–2 Western Michigan. Other "Group of Five" conferences: 5-2 Boise State, 4–4 San Diego State, 7–3 SMU (originally selected to play in the Frisco Bowl) 2021–present bowl seasons The 2021–22 bowl season featured 44 bowl games with everything largely back to normal after the turmoil of the previous season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawaii were the only team with a losing record, 6–7, selected. They were paired against the 6–6 Memphis Tigers in the 2021 Hawaii Bowl, but ultimately withdrew due to COVID-19 concerns. 17 teams with a 6–6 record were invited and accepted into bowl games. In addition, after initial bowl selections had been made, 5–7 Rutgers replaced 8–4 Texas A&M in the December 2021 Gator Bowl after positive COVID-19 tests within the Texas A&M program. Rutgers became the only team with a losing record to play a bowl game that season, losing to Wake Forest. Bowl teams with losing records The following teams entered bowl games with losing records. ^ Hawaii, with a losing record of 2–5, also won the Poi Bowl for the 1936 season. The University of Hawaii website does not count that win