In the United States, a bowl game is traditionally a post-season college football game; however the term "bowl" has become synonymous with a major American football event and variations of the traditional post-season match-up between two successful college teams do exist.

The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl Stadium, site of the first post-season college football games. The Rose Bowl stadium takes its name and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States. In college football parlance, the term "bowl" can also be used as a verb: as in a successful team going "bowling".