The number of bowl games have risen steadily, reaching 41 (including the national championship game) by the
2015 bowl season. To fill the 80 available bowl slots, a record 15 teams with non-winning seasons participated in bowl games—including three with a record of 5–7. This situation led directly to the NCAA Division I Council imposing a three-year moratorium on new bowl games in April 2016. Since 2010, organizers and boosters have continued to propose other bowl games—some of these proposals have since been dropped, while others are active proposals that have been placed on hold during the NCAA moratorium. Two proposed games, the Cure Bowl and Christmas Bowl, were turned down by the NCAA for 2010. The
Cure Bowl was eventually added in 2014, for the 2015 bowl season. In August 2013, the
Detroit Lions announced that it would hold a new bowl game at Ford Field beginning in 2014, holding
Big Ten and
Atlantic Coast Conference tie-ins, despite the existence of the
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. While Pizza Bowl organizers attempted to move the game to
Comerica Park (a baseball stadium across the street from Ford Field), these plans never came to fruition. In August 2014, the Lions announced that the new game would be known as the
Quick Lane Bowl, and play its inaugural game on December 26, 2014. In a statement to ''
Crain's Detroit Business'', Motor City Bowl co-founder Ken Hoffman confirmed that there would be no Little Caesars Pizza Bowl for 2014. In June 2013,
ESPN.com reported that the so-called
"Group of Five" conferences—the
American Athletic Conference,
Conference USA, MAC,
Mountain West Conference, and
Sun Belt Conference—were considering adding one or more new bowl games once the NCAA's current moratorium on new bowls expires after the 2013 season. This move was driven by a trend for the then-
"Power Five" conferences (ACC,
Big Ten,
Big 12,
Pac-12, and
SEC) to play one another in bowl games. The 2013 season, the last of the then-current four-year bowl cycle, had 16 bowls that involved two teams from "Power Five" leagues. The 2014 season, the first of a new six-year bowl cycle, would have at least 19, and possibly more, matchups of "Power Five" teams. The "Group of Five" was apparently concerned that this trend would mean that its teams might not have available bowl slots. The first new bowl to be confirmed for 2014 was the
Camellia Bowl, a game created by ESPN and played in
Montgomery, Alabama. It secured tie-ins with the MAC and Sun Belt, and an initial contract to run through the 2019 season. ESPN was also reported to be in negotiations to take over ownership of the existing
Heart of Dallas Bowl and establish a new bowl game in Boca Raton. Another ownership group interested in starting a Montgomery-based bowl at
New ASU Stadium reportedly switched focus to
Charleston, South Carolina. In the face of obstacles related to an NCAA ban on playing postseason games at predetermined locations in South Carolina due to the
Confederate battle flag being flown at a civil war monument on the
State House grounds, the ownership group instead chose to stage the
Medal of Honor Bowl all-star game at
Johnson Hagood Stadium beginning in 2014. However, with the Confederate flag's removal from the State House grounds on July 10, 2015, the NCAA lifted its ban that day. As such, on August 27 of that year, the Medal of Honor Bowl announced their plans to become a traditional postseason bowl game beginning on December 18, 2016, pending NCAA approval. The all-star game format was not played that year as a result. However, in April 2016, the NCAA announced a moratorium on new bowl games; however, no further editions of the Medal of Honor Bowl have been played. ==Maps of bowl games==