Cotton Bowl: Latest Results, Recent History, and What to Know

The most recent Cotton Bowl was an upset. Miami beat Ohio State 24-14 on December 31, 2025, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, knocking out the defending national champion in the first quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff. Cornerback Keionte Scott returned an interception 72 yards for the decisive touchdown. It was the 90th edition of the game, and the Hurricanes rode it all the way to the national championship game.

Table of Contents

• What is the Cotton Bowl Classic?
• Wait, which Cotton Bowl?
• How the Cotton Bowl fits in the 12-team CFP
• Recent Cotton Bowl results
• Four games that made the Cotton Bowl
• What’s next: the 2027 Cotton Bowl
• How teams get to Arlington
• Going to the game: Arlington logistics
• What to do in the Metroplex
• How rosters can shift between November and kickoff
• Q&A

One quirk worth knowing before you go looking for it: there is no Cotton Bowl Classic in calendar year 2026. The 90th was played on December 31, 2025, and the 91st is set for January 1, 2027. Because the game shifted off its traditional New Year’s Day slot, some calendar years get two Cotton Bowls and others get none. It happened in 2015 and 2016, again in 2023 and 2024, and it is happening again now. The first instance goes back to 1966, when the game was pushed to December 31 because the Dallas Cowboys had the NFL Championship Game at the stadium on New Year’s Day.

The next one is Friday, January 1, 2027, as a CFP quarterfinal, with a semifinal to follow in January 2028. If you are catching up on what the Cotton Bowl looks like today, this is the guide.

What is the Cotton Bowl Classic?

The Cotton Bowl Classic is a college football bowl game played in the Dallas and Fort Worth area every year since January 1, 1937. It is the fifth oldest bowl game in the country, behind only the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Sun Bowls.

It exists because one man paid for it. Dallas oilman and real estate developer J. Curtis Sanford financed the first game out of his own pocket. TCU, led by Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, beat Marquette 16-6 in front of roughly 17,000 people. Sanford lost money on it. He kept going anyway, and in 1940 a group of Dallas businessmen took the game over and formed the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association.

The name is a pun. A cotton boll is the seed pod of the cotton plant, and Texas is the largest cotton producer in the United States. The game leaned into the spelling that also happened to describe a stadium.

Goodyear has sponsored the game since 2014, so the official name is the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. The winner takes home the Field Scovell Trophy. The two most valuable player awards still carry the names of the people who built it: the J. Curtis Sanford Offensive MVP and the Felix R. McKnight Defensive MVP.

No program is more tied to this game than Texas. The Longhorns have played in it 23 times, far more than anyone else, including six years in a row from 1969 through 1974. Texas A&M is a distant second with 13. What Texas has not done is win it: the Longhorns are 11-11-1 in the game, the only program with more than a dozen appearances and a record that plain.

The game also runs its own Hall of Fame, and it is selective in an unusual way. Induction is judged solely on what a nominee did in the Cotton Bowl Classic itself, not on a career. A player who was great for one afternoon in Dallas or Arlington qualifies; a player who was great for four years elsewhere does not. Coaches, bowl administrators, and conference officials are eligible too. A committee of media members and Cotton Bowl Athletic Association directors is appointed every other year to pick the class, and each inductee receives a bronze statue modeled on a 1930s player, a nod to the decade the game was founded.

The conference tie-ins tell the story of Texas football realignment in miniature. The Southwest Conference champion held the host slot from 1941 through 1995. When the SWC dissolved, the Big 12 picked up a tie-in in 1997 and the SEC joined in 1999, an arrangement that ran through 2014. Since then the game has been a College Football Playoff property, and the tie-ins are dormant.

Wait, which Cotton Bowl?

This trips up more people than any other fact about the game, so it is worth being direct about it.

There are two Cotton Bowls. One is a stadium in Dallas, at Fair Park, built in 1930 and known as “The House That Doak Built” after SMU running back Doak Walker, whose popularity in the late 1940s forced two deck expansions. The other is the bowl game named after it.

The game left the stadium after the January 2009 edition. Since 2010 the Cotton Bowl Classic has been played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, about 20 miles west, and the move was a deliberate bid to get the game into the Bowl Championship Series. Dallas cold snaps in early January had long counted against it. The bid did not work at the time, but the game was folded into the College Football Playoff in 2014 anyway.

The old stadium is still very much alive. It hosts the Red River Rivalry between Texas and Oklahoma every October during the State Fair of Texas, along with the State Fair Classic between Grambling State and Prairie View A&M, two members of the SWAC. That game is a fixture in its own right. The SWAC was founded in 1920 by six Texas HBCUs, Prairie View A&M among them, and it has led all FCS conferences in average home attendance nearly every year the subdivision has existed. Grambling’s World Famed Marching Band is a large part of why, and for many attendees the halftime performance is the main event. It is under a two year renovation announced in 2023.

So when you buy Cotton Bowl tickets, check the venue. The game is in Arlington. The stadium of the same name is in Dallas.

How the Cotton Bowl fits in the 12-team CFP

The College Football Playoff expanded from four teams to 12 for the 2024-25 season. The Cotton Bowl is one of six bowls that host playoff games on a rotation, alongside the Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, and Sugar Bowls, alternating between quarterfinal and semifinal duty.

Here is the 12-team format for the 2026 season:

• The field includes the four Power Four conference champions (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC), who are guaranteed a spot regardless of where they finish in the rankings
• Plus the highest-ranked champion from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, and Sun Belt
• Plus the next seven highest-ranked teams
• Notre Dame is guaranteed a spot if it finishes in the top 12
• The top four seeds get byes to the quarterfinals
• Seeds 5 through 12 play first-round games on campus
• Quarterfinals and semifinals are at the bowl sites

The Power Four guarantee is new for 2026, a response to 2025, when Duke won the ACC at 8-5 and missed the field while two Group of Five teams got in on rankings.

The field itself stays at 12. The CFP management committee announced in January 2026 that it would hold the format steady for a third year after the Big Ten and SEC could not agree on expansion. The SEC favored a 16-team model with five automatic qualifiers, and the Big Ten pushed for a 24-team field.

The Group of Six access rule is not decorative, and the Cotton Bowl has hosted the proof. Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team in the playoff in 2021 and met Alabama here. Tulane, from the American, won this game outright in 2023 as an at-large pick.

Recent Cotton Bowl results

Two things stand out across that stretch. Ohio State has played in four of the last five Cotton Bowls and lost three of them, which is a strange record for a program that won a national title in the middle of it. And the game has produced two of the more memorable single plays in recent playoff history, both defensive scores: Sawyer’s 83 yard fumble return in 2025 and Scott’s 72 yard interception return in 2025’s December edition.

Fans did not see it coming either. The split on RallyFuel’s Ohio State vs. Miami game page sat at roughly 64-36 for Ohio State, and the Buckeyes were a 9.5 point favorite. Miami won by 10.

A few records worth knowing. Texas Tech is 0-4 here and Baylor is 0-3, so two Texas programs have never won their own state’s bowl. Ole Miss is 4-1, the best mark among teams with multiple trips. And the Big 12, which held a tie-in from 1997 through 2014, went 6-14 in the game, a losing record in what was supposed to be its home bowl.

For attendance, the high water mark came on the way out the door. The last Cotton Bowl played at the old stadium in Dallas, Ole Miss over Texas Tech in January 2009, drew 88,175, the largest crowd in the game’s history. The low was 17,323 in December 2020, when capacity was capped during the pandemic.

The 2026 game drew 19 million viewers, and Miami’s run from a No. 10 seed to the national championship game began there. The Hurricanes went on to lose the title to Indiana 27-21.

Four games that made the Cotton Bowl

1948: SMU 13, Penn State 13. The first interracial game played at the stadium. No Dallas hotel would house Penn State’s two Black players, so the entire team stayed at a naval air station 14 miles outside the city rather than split up.

1954: Rice 28, Alabama 6. Rice’s Dickey Moegle broke free on a run from his own 5-yard line. Alabama’s Tommy Lewis, watching from the sideline, came off the bench and tackled him at the 42. The referee awarded the touchdown anyway. It still stands as the longest touchdown run in game history at 95 yards, and it remains one of the strangest plays college football has produced.

1964: Texas 28, Navy 6. Top-ranked Texas against second-ranked Navy and Heisman winner Roger Staubach, only the second bowl game ever to pair the No. 1 and No. 2 teams. It was played in Dallas six weeks after President Kennedy was assassinated there.

1979: Notre Dame 35, Houston 34. Known as the Chicken Soup Game. An ice storm held the crowd to 32,500, Notre Dame trailed 34-12 midway through the fourth quarter, and a flu-stricken Joe Montana brought the Irish back to win. Montana was the game’s offensive MVP.

What’s next: the 2027 Cotton Bowl

The 91st Cotton Bowl Classic is scheduled for Friday, January 1, 2027, at AT&T Stadium. It will be a CFP quarterfinal, part of a New Year’s Day tripleheader with the Peach Bowl and the Rose Bowl. A fourth quarterfinal, the Fiesta Bowl, is played two days earlier on Wednesday, December 30, 2026.

The winner advances to a semifinal, either the Orange Bowl on Thursday, January 14, 2027, or the Sugar Bowl on Friday, January 15. The National Championship Game follows on Monday, January 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Kickoff time is not locked in yet. The three January 1 quarterfinals go out at noon, 4 p.m., and 8 p.m. Eastern, split between ESPN and TNT Sports. The Peach, Cotton, and Rose Bowls are assigned to those windows on Selection Day, Sunday, December 6, 2026.

Then comes the bigger date. The Cotton Bowl hosts a CFP semifinal on Friday, January 14, 2028, its first semifinal since January 2025. If you are planning a trip around this game rather than a specific team, that is the one to target.

How teams get to Arlington

The CFP selection committee, 13 members drawn mostly from former coaches, athletic directors, and journalists, releases weekly rankings every Tuesday night in November and into December. The final ranking sets the 12-team bracket.

The committee weighs three main factors:

• Overall record
• Head-to-head results between contenders
• Strength of schedule

Strength of schedule is where teams with one or two losses often outrank undefeated teams from weaker conferences. That factor gets more interesting in 2026, as the ACC and SEC both move to nine-game conference schedules, which is expected to push more two and three loss teams into the conversation.

Unlike the Rose Bowl, which is assigned the Big Ten champion when it hosts a quarterfinal, the Cotton Bowl has no conference tie-in under the current playoff structure. Matchups are set by bracket position, which is part of why this game has produced such varied pairings: an ACC team against the Big Ten in 2025, the SEC against the Big Ten in 2023, and the American against the Pac-12 in 2023. RallyFuel’s school rivalry tool puts two programs side by side on NIL activity, fan engagement, rankings, and championships, which is a decent way to size up an unfamiliar matchup once the bracket lands.

“Bracketology” is the term for projecting the field before it is locked in. ESPN, CBS, The Athletic, and most major outlets run weekly projections from October on.

Going to the game: Arlington logistics

The Cotton Bowl Classic is played at AT&T Stadium, 1 AT&T Way, Arlington, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth. Capacity is 80,000 and expandable to 100,000, which makes it the largest domed stadium in the world. It has a retractable roof, so weather is not a factor the way it was in Dallas, and a center hung video board that runs 160 feet wide.

Tickets. Buy through the CFP and Cotton Bowl official sites, participating school allotments, or verified resale platforms like Ticketmaster, SeatGeek, or StubHub. Prices depend heavily on which fan bases travel, and Texas is within driving distance of a large share of the SEC and Big 12.

Getting there is the hard part. This is the single biggest difference between the Cotton Bowl and the other playoff sites. There is no rail line to the stadium. Arlington has no light rail system at all, which makes it the largest city in the United States without public transit of that kind.

• Driving. There are roughly 12,000 spaces across 15 numbered lots. Blue and Silver lots are closest and priciest. Buy a pass in advance; day of prices climb and lots sell out.
• Rail plus shuttle. The Trinity Railway Express runs between Dallas and Fort Worth. Get off at CentrePort station and take a shuttle or rideshare the rest of the way.
• Rideshare. There are designated pickup and drop-off zones. Post-game surge pricing around the stadium is severe, and the exit crush is worse than the arrival.
• Stay in the district. Hotels within walking distance of the Entertainment District let you skip the traffic problem entirely, and this is the move most experienced visitors recommend.

Where to stay. Three practical bases:

• Arlington Entertainment District: walk to the stadium, most expensive, books out first
• Dallas: far more hotel inventory, better food and nightlife, 20 miles east
• Fort Worth: quieter, cheaper, the Stockyards are worth a morning, 20 miles west

Bag policy. AT&T Stadium enforces the NFL clear bag rule. Approved: clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC bags no larger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, one gallon clear freezer bags, and small single compartment clutches up to 4.5 by 6.5 inches. Backpacks, coolers, camera bags, fanny packs, and seat cushions are out. Unlike most venues, there is a paid bag check on site through a third party locker service, so a non compliant bag is an inconvenience rather than a disaster.

What to do in the Metroplex

The bowl runs its own event week. The Cotton Bowl Classic programs several days around the game, including the Battle of the Bands, the Goodyear Huddle Up Fan Fest, the Tall Cotton Tailgate, a drone show, and Cotton Bowl Live!. When the game falls on New Year’s Eve, NYE Live! at Texas Live! is the anchor party. Check the official site for the current schedule, since the lineup shifts with the kickoff date.

The Arlington Entertainment District is a rare setup: AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field, Texas Live!, Six Flags Over Texas, and the Esports Stadium all sit within walking distance of each other. Texas Live! is the default pregame gathering point.

There is a parade, though it is not the Rose Parade. Dallas runs a New Year’s parade long associated with the game, now known as the Comerica Bank New Year’s Parade. It is a fraction of the scale of Pasadena’s, and it is not tethered to kickoff the way the Rose Parade is, so check the date before you plan around it.

Go see the original Cotton Bowl. It is about 20 minutes east at Fair Park in Dallas, and it is a genuine piece of college football history. Fair Park itself is a National Historic Landmark district full of Art Deco architecture built for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

Dallas is worth a day on its own:

• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza: the Kennedy assassination site, told from the building the shots came from
• Deep Ellum: live music, murals, bars
• Bishop Arts District: independent restaurants and shops
• Dallas Arts District: the largest contiguous urban arts district in the country

Fort Worth offers the other version of Texas:

• The Stockyards: cattle drives twice daily, honky tonks, western wear
• Sundance Square: walkable downtown blocks
• The Kimbell Art Museum: a small, exceptional collection in a landmark Louis Kahn building

Food is the easy part. This is barbecue and Tex-Mex country, and the Metroplex has both in depth. Ask locally rather than following a list; the good barbecue moves around and sells out by mid afternoon.

How rosters can shift between November and kickoff

The CFP runs from mid December through late January, and rosters at the start of the playoff do not always look like rosters at the end. A few moving pieces:

NFL Draft opt-outs. Projected first and second round picks sometimes sit out bowl games to protect draft stock. This was common in non-playoff bowls and is less common inside the CFP, where the games matter more.

Transfer portal. The portal window opens in December. Players unhappy with playing time, position room, or fit can enter, and some leave mid playoff run. RallyFuel’s transfer portal tracker filters by portal status, sport, and conference.

NIL and revenue sharing. Collectives and, since the House settlement took effect, direct school revenue sharing can keep a star on the roster who might otherwise leave. For 2025-26 the revenue sharing cap sat at $20.5 million per school, with football taking the majority at most Power Four programs.

Miami’s 2026 Cotton Bowl team is a useful illustration of what the portal era looks like in practice. Quarterback Carson Beck arrived from Georgia, threw a touchdown pass in the upset, and was part of a roster assembled to win immediately rather than developed over four years. That is the normal path now, not the exception.

When you are predicting playoff games, especially deep into the bracket, check who is actually playing rather than assuming the November depth chart still holds.

Q&A

Q: Who won the most recent Cotton Bowl? Miami beat Ohio State 24-14 on December 31, 2025, in a CFP quarterfinal at AT&T Stadium. Keionte Scott returned an interception 72 yards for a touchdown and was named defensive MVP. Running back Mark Fletcher Jr. took offensive MVP honors. It was Miami’s first CFP appearance, and the Hurricanes reached the national championship game before losing to Indiana.

Q: When is the next Cotton Bowl? The 91st Cotton Bowl Classic is Friday, January 1, 2027, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, as a CFP quarterfinal. Kickoff will be noon, 4 p.m., or 8 p.m. Eastern, assigned on Selection Day, Sunday, December 6, 2026.

Q: Was there a Cotton Bowl in 2026? No. The 90th Cotton Bowl Classic was played on December 31, 2025, and the 91st is scheduled for January 1, 2027, so no game falls in calendar year 2026. If you are searching for the “2026 Cotton Bowl,” you are almost certainly looking for the December 31, 2025 game between Miami and Ohio State.

Q: Is the Cotton Bowl played in Dallas? No. The game moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington in 2010. Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, the game’s original home from 1937 through the January 2009 edition, still hosts the Red River Rivalry and the State Fair Classic, but not the bowl game named after it.

Q: When does the Cotton Bowl next host a semifinal? Friday, January 14, 2028. The Cotton Bowl is a quarterfinal on January 1, 2027, then a semifinal the following season.

Q: Does the Cotton Bowl have a conference tie-in? Not currently. The Southwest Conference champion held the host slot from 1941 through 1995, and the Big 12 and SEC had tie-ins from the late 1990s through 2014. Since the Cotton Bowl became a College Football Playoff site, matchups are determined by bracket position instead.

Q: What is the AT&T Stadium bag policy? Clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC bags no larger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, one gallon clear freezer bags, or small single compartment clutches up to 4.5 by 6.5 inches. Backpacks, coolers, and camera bags are not permitted. Paid bag storage is available on site.

Q: What is the best way to get to AT&T Stadium? There is no rail line to the stadium and Arlington has no light rail, so plan on driving with a prepaid parking pass, taking the Trinity Railway Express to CentrePort and connecting from there, or staying inside the Arlington Entertainment District and walking. Post-game rideshare surge around the stadium is steep.