College football's 25-game bowl season kicks off Tuesday with the inaugural New Orleans Bowl between North Texas and Colorado State at the Superdome.
The bowl games, which reward the better teams in college football and earn revenues as Holiday season television fare, climax on January 3 when top-ranked Miami meets fourth-ranked Nebraska in the Rose Bowl.
The New Orleans Bowl is one example of how the proliferation of bowl games has diluted the quality of the matches, as North Texas brings a losing record of 5-6 into the contest.
North Texas won the Sun Belt Conference title and the automatic bowl bid by bouncing back after starting the season by losing their first five games.
Colorado State , fell well short of expectations this season, but after a 2-4 start, they rallied to win four of their last five games.
North Texas, known as the Mean Green, will be appearing in the postseason for the first time since the 1959 Sun Bowl.
Marshall will play East Carolina Wednesday in the Mobile Alabama Bowl, while North Carolina State meets Pittsburgh in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida.