2015 College Football Bowl Season - Most Intriguing Matchups

Each year we rank the bowls based on a measure we call "intrigue". Basically, what this means is that we look at each game and analyze, based on the performance of the two teams involved in the game, the relative chance that the game will play out to be a close game between two very good teams. It's a mixture of a measure of the quality of the teams involved and also how closely matched they are. Here are the results of our analysis of the 40 bowl games in the 2015/2016 bowl season:

1. College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl - #4 Oklahoma vs. #2 Clemson

2. BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl - #6 Notre Dame vs. #3 Ohio State

3. Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - #8 Houston vs. #9 Florida State

4. College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic - #7 Michigan State vs. #1 Alabama

5. Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual - #5 Stanford vs. #11 Iowa

6. Allstate Sugar Bowl - #18 Oklahoma State vs. #10 Ole Miss

7. Russell Athletic Bowl - #20 North Carolina vs. #13 Baylor

8. Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl - #15 Michigan vs. #21 Florida

9. Valero Alamo Bowl - #24 Oregon vs. #16 TCU

10. Marmot Boca Raton Bowl - #27 Toledo vs. #19 Temple

11. Holiday Bowl - #31 USC vs. #32 Wisconsin

12. Outback Bowl - #28 Northwestern vs. #14 Tennessee

13. Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl - #35 BYU vs. #30 Utah

14. TaxSlayer Bowl - #41 Penn State vs. #35 Georgia

15. Hawai'I Bowl - #43 San Diego State vs. #48 Cincinnati

(tie) Foster Farms Bowl - #46 UCLA vs. #49 Nebraska

17. Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman - #38 Pittsburgh vs. #12 Navy

18. AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl - #17 LSU vs. #41 Texas Tech

19. Miami Beach Bowl - #23 Western Kentucky vs. #44 South Florida

20. Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl - #40 Washington vs. #52 Southern Miss

21. Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl - #37 Texas A&M vs. #53 Louisville

22. Belk Bowl - #49 NC State vs. #22 Mississippi State

23. San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - #57 Boise State vs. #61 Northern Illinois

24. Motel 6 Cactus Bowl - #34 West Virginia vs. #55 Arizona State

25. R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - #54 Arkansas State vs. #62 Louisiana Tech

26. Hyundai Sun Bowl - #47 Miami vs. #63 Washington State

27. Birmingham Bowl - #56 Auburn vs. #25 Memphis

28. Quick Lane Bowl - #64 Central Michigan vs. #71 Minnesota

29. GoDaddy Bowl - #59 Georgia Southern vs. #26 Bowling Green

30. New Era Pinstripe Bowl - #66 Indiana vs. #74 Duke

31. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl - #70 Akron vs. #76 Utah State

32. Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl - #39 California vs. #67 Air Force

33. AutoZone Liberty Bowl - #65 Kansas State vs. #29 Arkansas

34. Raycom media Camellia Bowl - #67 Ohio vs. #33 Appalachian State

35. Popeyes Bahamas Bowl - #75 Middle Tennessee vs. #51 Western Michigan

36. St. Petersburg Bowl - #79 Conneticut vs. #45 Marshall

(tie) Cure Bowl - #93 San Jose State vs. #95 Georgia State

38. Gildan New Mexico Bowl - #72 Arizona vs. #90 New Mexico

39. NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl - #94 Nevada vs. #80 Colorado State

40. Camping World Independence Bowl - #88 Tulsa vs. #58 Virginia Tech