Rose Bowl/CFP dates and times changed
Since none of the bowl sites are in the north and the CFP seems disinclined to award a championship game in the north, #1 wouldn't have been a bad option. Otherwise, #4 is obviously the best option. You're right that the Sugar Bowl does not have a legitimate claim to the 8:00 Jan 1st timemslot. Prior to the playoffs, the Sugar Bowl was played on a day other than the 1st 9 times in 11 years.
Plus, if the CFP didn't have a need to make NYE a college football traidition, a couple of the games could be played on the 2nd/3rd/4th whatever. For intance, look at the 2018-19 bowl season when the Cotton and Orange are semifinal sites and the 1st falls on a Tuesday. You could go Peach on Dec. 31, Orange at 1:00, Rose at 4:45, Cotton at 8:30 on the 1st, Sugar Bowl on the 2nd and the Fiesta Bowl on the 3rd. Can anyone argue that wouldn't be better for pretty much everyone involved (except the actual football players, of course, but they haven't mattered in ages). Championship game would have to move back to the 8th or 9th, which is the only downside.
When are we going to have the Bowl tail stop wagging the College Football dog?
Tell the bowls how it is going to be, and if they don't like it the games will be held somewhere else. What's the Rose Bowl going to do, go back to chariot races?
Dating back to the 1960's there has been an agreement (or maybe it was an act of congress), that basically kept the NFL from playing games on Saturdays (and possibly colleges from playing games on Sundays as well ) at least during the college regular season
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I think the reason they like the idea of NYE games is they can also promote all the NYD games, and use the NYD to promote the upcoming playoff final.
If the playoff games are on NYD, they will pretty much crowd out the other games- it's about making the most of the time slots that are available for playoff games AND bowl games.
Personally, I'd prefer to see the playoff semifinals held on the Saturday (and) Monday AFTER NYD.
In a few years, I predict 1 NYE game and 3 NYD games will be the quarter-finals, and this discussion will be moot.
[The semi-finals will be the 2nd Saturday or Monday after that, and the final a couple of weeks after that. It's not the NFL, so the games don't have to be every week. A bye week between games gives players more chance to recover, go to class, etc.]