Activities Sports & Athletics 10 Winningest Bowl Teams of All Time Utah Tops the List Share PINTEREST Email Print PhotoAlto/Sandro Di Carlo Darsa / Getty Images Sports & Athletics Football College Football Basics Playing & Coaching Best of Football Plays & Formations Baseball Basketball Bicycling Billiards Bodybuilding Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Cricket Extreme Sports Golf Gymnastics Ice Hockey Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skateboarding Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Tim Hyland Updated November 04, 2019 There are 40 officially-sanctioned bowl games in the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, of those, the New Year's six, make up the College Football Playoff. As of the 2016-2017 season, Utah tops the list, with an all-time bowl record of 16-4-0 in 20 bowl appearances. The top 10 winningest college football bowl teams are ranked by winning percentage in a minimum of 20 bowl appearances. The list includes NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision-sanctioned bowl games, the top level of college football in the U.S. University Wins-Loss-Ties Games Played Winning Percentage Utah 16-4-0 20 0.800 USC 34-17-0 51 0.667 Mississippi 24-13-0 37 0.649 Florida State 28-16-2 46 0.6304 Oklahoma State 17-10-0 27 0.6296 Syracuse 15-9-1 25 0.620 Penn State 28-17-2 47 0.617 Georgia 30-19-3 52 0.613 Mississippi State 12-8-0 20 0.600 Alabama 38-25-3 66 0.598 History of the Bowl The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl stadium, site of the first postseason college football games. The Rose Bowl Stadium, in turn, takes its name and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States. The history of the bowl game began in 1902 with the Tournament East-West football game between Michigan and Stanford, a game Michigan won 49-0. The Tournament of Roses Association in Pasadena, California, was the sponsor. As of 1916, the East versus West game was played annually. In 1923, the Rose Bowl began to be played in the brand-new Rose Bowl Stadium. By 2015, the number of college football's postseason bowls had doubled in 20 years. There were 18 bowls in 1995. New Year's Six and Championship Game The New Year's Six pits the best teams in the country against each other and includes six of the ten oldest bowl games: the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach. The four other senior bowls that did not make the six are the Sun, Gator, Citrus and Liberty bowls. Four of the best teams play in two semifinal games; the venue rotates annually among the six major bowls. The winners advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship. The championship game's venue is selected based on bids submitted by cities. Bids considered are host cities with stadiums that have a capacity of at least 65,000 spectators. Under the bidding system, cities cannot host both a semifinal game and the title game in the same year.