College football bowl season is officially upon us.
However, given the current makeup of the 2022 opt-out tracker, you may quickly determine that it looks more like college football bowl opt-out season.
While bowl games have lost several future NFL prospects to opt-outs in recent years, the transfer portal has thrown a completely new wrench in bowl season, as several programs now find themselves without multiple players -- whether starters or depth pieces -- for their upcoming bowl games.
In just the first 24 hours of the portal opening last week, teams saw more than 1,000 players apply to transfer from their respective programs.
On day 1, over 1,000 players entered the transfer portal. Expect it to continue to grow. pic.twitter.com/FAlkyxdLZQ
— 247Sports (@247Sports) December 6, 2022
Whether or not we’ll see any teams opt out of their bowl games entirely this season remains to be seen. Teams stricken by COVID and opt-outs resulted in some games finding new players to fill them, but we did see five bowl games get completely canceled in what felt like an unprecedented bowl season.
Any games that are canceled will be announced here on the opt-out tracker.
NOTE: Players in the transfer portal are presumed out unless otherwise noted.
Reliaquest Bowl, January 2 (12:00 PM EST)
Mississippi State (+2.5) vs. Illinois -- O/U 46.5
Mississippi State
(OUT) WR Rara Thomas – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) RB Dillon Johnson – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) RB Ke’Travion Hargrove – Entered transfer portal
Illinois
(OUT) RB DD Snyder – Entered transfer portal
Cotton Bowl, January 2 (1:00 PM EST)
Tulane (+2.5) vs. USC -- O/U 62.5
Tulane
(OUT) WR Dea Dea McDougle – Injury
USC
(OUT) LB Ralen Goforth – Entered transfer portal
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, January 2 (1:00 PM EST)
LSU (-14.5) vs. Purdue -- O/U 56.5
LSU
(OUT) WR Kayshon Boutte -- Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) CB Jay Ward – Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) LB Phillip Webb – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) QB Jayden Daniels - Injury
(OUT) EDGE BJ Ojulari -- Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) WR Jaray Jenkins -- Declared for NFL Draft
Purdue
(OUT) RB Kobe Lewis – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) DB Cory Trice -- Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) OL Spencer Holstege -- Entered transfer portal
Rose Bowl, January 2 (5:00 PM EST)
Penn State (+2) vs. Utah -- O/U 52
Penn State
(OUT) CB Joey Porter Jr. – Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) QB Christian Veilleux – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) DL Ken Talley – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) RB Caziah Holmes – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) DL Rodney McGraw – Entered transfer portal
Utah
(OUT) RB Tavion Thomas – Declared for NFL Draft
(OUT) DB Malone Mataele – Entered transfer portal
(OUT) TE Dalton Kincaid -- Declared for NFL Draft
CFP National Championship, January 9 (7:30 PM EST)
TBD vs. TBD
