No, it’s not your imagination. There really are more college football bowl games than ever. In fact, the 2015 season will conclude with an all-time record high of 41 postseason bowls, two more than in 2014 and 13 more than just a decade ago.
Now, this isn’t the place for me to get into why there are so many bowl games, but I think you can make an educated guess on that. The point of this post is just to provide a neat visual history lesson on the progression of bowl games from 1915 — the first year the Rose Bowl was contested on an uninterrupted basis — to the present day. As you hover over each bar you’ll see both the bowl count for a season and any new bowl games started that year. For historical accuracy I use the original names, not whatever they are now.
