The LA Bowl has been played for the last time as organizers announced Thursday that Washington’s win over Boise State in December was the final iteration of the five-year-old postseason event. That brings the total number of bowl games expected to finish out the upcoming 2026 season to 40, which could decrease further in the coming years for some of the small events with further College Football Playoff expansion potentially on its way in the future.

“After five great years, the LA Bowl at Sofi Stadium will no longer be moving forward. It has been an honor for our staff and volunteers to bring college football to one of the world’s greatest venues,” a statement from LA Bowl organizers said. “We want to thank the athletes and football programs who participated and, most importantly, the college football fans who joined us over these past five seasons.”

The LA Bowl had been played in Inglewood, California, since 2021 and featured teams from the Pac-12 and Mountain West. The game never had a repeat matchup and Boise State was the only team that played in the event twice.

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Bowl season as we know it faces uncertainty moving forward given the sport’s unruly December calendar and singular transfer portal window in January. Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli said last season that bowl games will always have their place, but their total number will be dictated by the number of interested participating teams.

More than a half-dozen programs declined bowl opportunities in December, including Notre Dame. There were even a couple games that featured five-win teams as there was a shortage of programs who met the minimum six-win eligibility requirement.

“The bowl system is a market-driven system. Through the 100 years of bowl games, no one has ever dictated how many bowl games there are,” Carparelli told The Athletic. “They’ve been strictly a function of host communities that want to host them and teams that want to participate. If at any point in time, the institutions decide as much as we love the bowl system, we may want to participate at a different level, then the bowl system will adjust accordingly.But no one’s in a position to say what the number is, or to make any of those decisions. The market will dictate it.”

An increasing number of player opt-outs in non-CFP games is an obvious issue from a competitive standpoint, not to mention bowl practices getting in the way of recruiting.

Bowl games aren’t often seen as the “reward” they once were for an admirable finish, especially with college football’s all-in push toward the playoff.