Rose Bowl Committee making moves
From the Out of Bounds with Andy Wittry:
The Rose Bowl Committee Chair has been trying to secure it's place in the future playoff expansion. They reached out to the Warren & Scott a few months ago and referenced the potential of and 8 or 12 team playoff...6 weeks before the playoff format proposition was announced to the public. Thinking here is that the Rose bowl was aware of the discussions and that the future playoff would perhaps not include bowl games (or maybe just not the Rose Bowl.)
The first of the 4 recommendations made to the B1G & PAC was:
1) Development of an independent media contract with the Rose Bowl Game, its partner conferences, and a telecast entity for an annual quarterfinal game;
August 13th, 2021 at 10:32 AM ^
It's hard to believe the organizers of a game that Michigan won a national championship in has been reduced to begging to be included as an annual quarter-final matchup.
August 13th, 2021 at 2:15 PM ^
That national championship was a looooong time ago.
CFB is now an NFL prep league. Some bowls, leagues, teams, etc did not adjust or chose not to adjust as dramatically as others.
Is the Rose Bowl completely irrelevant? ... not yet. Is UM football completely irrelevant beyond its fanbase?... not quite yet. But with NIL and the next conference realignment, things are really shaping up for there to be 2 super conferences, bowls deemed completely meaningless beyond the location of the playoff games, and 4-6 teams having any national significance.
There was a time (40 years ago) when the Cotton Bowl was a huge deal too. Life comes at you fast.
OR in the case of Michigan and the Rose Bowl, they had 20 years to figure out where things were going and despite brand recognition, tradition and history failed to prep accordingly.
August 13th, 2021 at 5:52 PM ^
You mean the organizers who in conjunction with Disney, the Big 10 and the Pac 10 caused Michigan's only modern national championship to have an asterisk next to it because Michigan was locked in by contract to playing a mediocre Washington State team instead of the matchup everyone wanted against the clear 2nd best team Nebraska?
Piss on the Rose Bowl, may their underwear always be infested with ants.
August 13th, 2021 at 8:14 PM ^
1) Mediocre Washington State almost pulled off the upset...which would have really been "Pure Michigan" given the # of national titles we left on the table in Bo's years by blowing that game.
2) Nebraska was scary good that year, but needed an extraordinarily lucky win to beat a meh Missouri team with a illegally kicked ball caught for a TD in the endzone for a TD.
Nebraska did not deserve the split national title, but they might have also been a horrible matchup for UM given that that they ran a triple option...something we didn't see much that year and would have mitigated the effect that the greatest college football defender in history could have had on the game, given the limited passes thrown.
August 18th, 2021 at 12:21 PM ^
Nebraska was undefeated, had won 2 out of 3 national titles, played for a 3rd and lost by a field goal in one of the greatest bowl games ever played and came a Big 12 title game upset from playing for their 4th straight the year before. They humiliated a Tennessee team with one of the greatest QBs to ever play the sport that was so good they won the natty the year after without him in the Orange Bowl.
Nebraska absolutely deserved a share of the national title if you're going to create a system so stupid that the clear two best teams in the sport won't play each other because one of them has a contract saying they have to play the shittiest major conference champion of the last 30 years not named UConn. I will never not be furious that Michigan was denied their date with history because some assholes who run the Rose Bowl paid for a bunch of people to get to play golf with Bob Hope or some shit.
August 13th, 2021 at 10:43 AM ^
Honestly, as a proponent of on-campus playoff games, just move bowl season to Week 0 of the following season. They can get their corporate money, the big-profile schools, and the games will mean something.
August 13th, 2021 at 10:51 AM ^
I don't see schools signing onto playing an extra game every year. Obviously it's contingent on having a bowl-qualifying record. In today's era of 'nearly everybody plays a bowl game,' it would qualify a really unnecessary number of teams playing an extra game on top of regular season plus possible playoffs for the top tier.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:19 PM ^
If the universities wrest full control of football away from the NCAA, which seems to be happening, the financials that drive bowl games will also change. Bowl games are typically no-win situations for schools as they typically take in less money than they spend. I can't remember the bowl game when Michigan's band was not going to attend because of financials and then the decision was reversed. Bowls are cash cows for bowl organizers/committees. It's time bowls are put into the dustbin of history and lets the schools involved in the playoffs benefits from their participation.
Assuming a couple of large conferences are formed, I see no reason why bowls would continue to exist. You could move conference finals to warm climates along with the NC game. Playing in Ann Arbor in late December? I'd love to see some of the SEC teams play in bitter cold, but...Very hit or miss.
August 13th, 2021 at 10:56 AM ^
I have never heard of the Week 0 bowl season idea. Seems so crazy it might work.
Pros: more time to plan, fans can travel, the game actually means something, guarantees big inter-conference matchups, basically just an expansion of the kickoff series in Dallas, Atlanta, etc., and there can be more games in northern cities - the Big Ten footprint could host a bowl game in a place other than Detroit.
Cons: most bowl games are in warm weather which would be less than ideal, the bowl trip is less of a "reward" for a good season, it's not a holiday trip for fans and alumni, it's a change from the CFB tradition (though that's changing anyway so who cares)
August 13th, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
Add another con: If the bowl game is the next season, the two teams may not be nearly as good as the year before, after their best players move on.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
True, but this happens now with some teams - there are opt-outs and injuries. In most cases, the teams are not that different from year to year, the best players are replaced by new talent. And in any case, what does it matter? The fact that it's pushed to the next season breaks the connection to prior year, so it's really just a mechanism for matching up teams and a neutral site location for the first OOC game of the year.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
That's an off the wall idea. I like it. I'll double down on your crazy idea with another one. Take the top 12 teams from the previous season and have them play each other in Week 0. Winners get a auto-bid to the 12 team playoff, provided they finish the season with less than three losses.
That protects conference champs from weak conferences (Cincinnati, UCF) if they pull off a Week 1 shocker, but stumble along the way. And if you're from a Power 5 conference, three losses mean you shouldn't be in the playoffs anyway.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:47 PM ^
I like your ideas and would like to subscribe to your news letter.
Seriously though, the preseason is the perfect time for a number of the bowl games, much like the preseason tourneys in hoops. If the playoffs expand then just keep the post season to the conference champ games and playoffs.
August 13th, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
The Alliance is happening
August 13th, 2021 at 10:57 AM ^
George looks way too happy here. Nobody's that happy. I smell a rat.
August 13th, 2021 at 11:11 AM ^
The Rose Bowl ain't your grandaddy's bowl game anymore.
August 13th, 2021 at 11:38 AM ^
To the contrary, that is precisely what it's become.
August 13th, 2021 at 11:57 AM ^
Whoa Nelly!
August 13th, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^
But it's still the "granddaddy of them all", until Maury proves otherwise.
August 13th, 2021 at 11:19 AM ^
So is this supposed to also keep the B1G and PAC12 relevant when the SEC gobbles up all the TV money and 'croots as it continues to expand?
Woo-hoo!!! We have an annual quarterfinal game!!!
Oh, wait. That's just the Rose Bowl, not the actual conference teams short of some team being good enough to get in and properly slotted...
August 13th, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
You might want to get offline and argue with yourself there, come back when you have settled on a position.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
I used to be a purist when it came to the Rose Bowl. But once they punted the game over to ESPN, I realized that the Rose Bowl I grew up on was gone. I tolerated Oklahoma v Washington St. I even tolerated second place teams in the game even though they didn't win the conference.
I don't know why, but the move to cable just stung for me. I have similar feelings about the Final Four, but at least that boomerangs to CBS on a rotating basis.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:10 PM ^
Not even a semi-final now? NFL Jr. doing its thing.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:36 PM ^
The Rose Bowl Committee Chair has been trying to secure its place in the future playoff expansion
Pet peeve.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
Although some may choose to criticize your inner pedant, I always find these critiques helpful. Its/it's for some reason is a tough one.
However, I'm an advocate of purging apostrophes entirely. Unlike commas, which serve a useful purpose, apostrophes could be dispensed with entirely and words can be understood by context without them. English has enough words that are spelled the same and mean different things anyway. What's a few more?
That paragraph alone has about 17 apostrophes I either used correctly or not, and just reinforces my opinion. Exhausting.
August 13th, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^
Interesting that basic, even elementary, rules of the language are considered pedantic.
Maybe the only thing exhausting here is the mental gymnastics one has to go through to keep up with your opinions.
August 13th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
“It’s” as a possessive was once grammatically correct. Language is fluid, and I think you are correct. I can’t remember the last time seeing an apostrophe excluded confused my understanding. Whatever the number of times it has confused communication, it is probably dwarfed by the number of internet arguments discussing the issue.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:18 PM ^
The Rose Bowl could be the National Championship game venue every year and there would be zero complaints from me. It’s a historic venue in a beautiful scenery. At a minimum it should be a guaranteed semi-final bowl every year.
August 13th, 2021 at 1:43 PM ^
While I love the Rose Bowl. they are basically the enemy on this point. If the playoffs expand than at least the first round should be on campuses, and I would argue the first 2 rounds should be but that isn't likely.
August 13th, 2021 at 2:22 PM ^
Yep. Love the Rose Bowl, but it feels like it has become a case of "a football game that is an add-on item to a parade that has to occur as close as possible to New Year's Day."
I feel like the Tournament of Roses Committee (which has been in legal battles with the city of Pasadena for various licensing reasons for years now) would be perfectly fine with a future scenario where the football game was 3rd place in the B1G vs. 3rd place in the Pac-12 in front of 70K fans, as long as that game was still at 2 PM PT on NYD, and as long as the parade still happened beforehand.
From their POV, the football game is nice. As good a match-up as possible is also nice. But they'd trade a quality match-up for the timeslot and the parade.
August 13th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ^
I liked the Rose Bowl growing up, but as many have mentioned, it's basically meaningless now. The nail in the coffin was last year when it was the "Rose Bowl" @ Jerryworld, but the writing has been on the wall for years now. You can't hold hostage the future of college football because of some sunset in Pasadena. C'est la vi. ::Shoulder shrug emoji::
August 13th, 2021 at 6:02 PM ^
I don’t know much, but the rose bowl is the best place to watch a college football game.