The 1987–88 NCAA football bowl games concluded the 1987 NCAA Division I-A football season, featuring 18 games. Twenty ranked teams participated, and seven of the eighteen matchups were between two ranked teams. The Miami Hurricanes were declared the national champions, after upsetting #1 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Seventeen of the bowl games ended with a winner, while there was a lone tie (Auburn vs Syracuse in the Sugar Bowl). Nine independent teams competed, along with six SEC teams, four Big Ten, four Pac-10, three WAC, three Big 8, three SWC, two ACC, one MAC, and one PCAA.