OT - Rose Bowl in danger of losing CFP semifinal game

Submitted by TrojanBlue on December 14th, 2020 at 10:25 PM

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel reports the ACC, SEC and Notre Dame are pushing the CFP committee to move the Rose Bowl's semifinal game from California to a state that allows fans in the stadium so parents can attend.  The most likely venue is AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.  Pasadena owns the Rose Bowl name, so if the game is moved, there would be no Rose Bowl for the first time since 1916. 

Mandel says moving the game  "could have significant long-term consequences for one of the most valuable properties in college sports....  The CFP acknowledging one of its marquee games can just as easily be played in a random indoor NFL stadium could permanently erode the Rose Bowl brand. The primary reason the CFP semifinals aren’t played on New Year’s Day every year is because the Rose Bowl’s timeslot is considered sacrosanct.  That would be a lot harder to justify moving forward. 'It becomes just another college football game,' said the industry source."

The article mentions the committee is meeting this Tuesday and Thursday and could make a decision this week.

https://theathletic.com/2261349/2020/12/14/rose-bowl-college-football-playoff-move/

1VaBlue1

December 15th, 2020 at 9:41 AM ^

Oracle = kinda sorta maybe almost not really moving...

The company headquarters will be moving. The other ~50,000 or so employees in CA will be staying at the massive Oracle campus.  And they'll still have to pay CA state taxes.  It's a political stunt by Larry Ellison that might show as a rounding error on Oracle's bottom line.

mackbru

December 15th, 2020 at 10:48 AM ^

False narrative fueled by the Fox News crowd. Companies come and go all the time. For every one that leaves California, 5 start up. 
 

Newsom did a stupid thing at that restaurant. But most Californians appreciate how he’s handled the pandemic in the country’s most populous state, whose testing regimen is the country’s most advanced. Texas, meantime, is stacking bodies in trucks and stepping on its dick as usual. 

crg

December 14th, 2020 at 11:31 PM ^

The Rose Bowl organization brought this on themselves by ceding control to the CFP.  They should have kept it Big 10 vs PAC-whatever and let the CFP do their own thing.

bo_lives

December 14th, 2020 at 11:55 PM ^

Seriously. This thread is emblematic of Michigan fans being stuck in the past and refusing to accept that college football has changed and left their school in the dust. The Rose Bowl started losing its luster in 1998 when the BCS introduced the National Championship Game. With the introduction of the playoff, it took another step down. Bo’s Michigan is ancient history. Let it go, folks. 

maizenbluenc

December 15th, 2020 at 7:54 AM ^

While I agree the Rose has diminished in value since the BCS and then the CFP, I disagree that it has to be this way, and it should not. If you take the traditions away  from college football, you may as well kill it.

The current format arriving at the same two teams most years causing talent flocking completely sucks FWIW.

bo_lives

December 15th, 2020 at 10:42 AM ^

Well, traditions change. The Rose Bowl used to be the ultimate destination for Big Ten and Pac 10 teams. That will never be the case again. While that's disappointing to some, the old system had downsides too. Mainly the possibility of split championships and less than ideal bowl matchups.

As you say, the current format sucks. Nobody likes to see Alabama and Clemson dominate every year (outside the fans of those schools), while a tiny handful of other teams fight for the remaining two slots (Georgia, OSU, Oklahoma, ND). But like it or not, this phenomenon is part of a larger trend that's probably impossible to wind back--i.e. the professionalization of college sports. Players don't go to Alabama, Clemson, OSU, Georgia, and Oklahoma to play school. Schools like ND and Michigan try to retain a veneer of high academic standards, but it's an exercise in futility. You can't expect to compete every year at the heavyweight level unless your program commits to being a minor league NFL team. As more schools realize this, there's going to need to be a new regulatory body to replace the NCAA and figure out how we can increase parity and start compensating players as the professionals they are.

jjelliso

December 15th, 2020 at 12:25 AM ^

May as well.  college football is a shadow of what it once was and the elements that made it unique are disappearing if not gone. Its now just NFL with worse players and no parity.  

M-Dog

December 15th, 2020 at 10:54 AM ^

Need Eight teams: The five P5 champions, the top G5 team, and two worthy At-Larges.

Breaks up the log jam of always the same four P5 teams, gives a G5 team a seat at the table, keeps a couple of top P5 non-champions in the picture, and does not dilute the regular season. 

Seed the top 4 only.  Assign the bottom 4 at random so the G5 team is not always playing the 1 seed.

FrankMurphy

December 15th, 2020 at 1:29 AM ^

Is it just me, or has this moth-eaten season permanently diminished anyone else's enthusiasm for college football generally (irrespective of the fact that Michigan Football is in bad shape)? I'm at a point where I prefer to watch random NBA preseason games or college basketball games between mid-majors over Power 5 college football. 

M-Dog

December 15th, 2020 at 11:16 AM ^

Exactly.  I'm not hyper-focused on every single college football thing at every single moment this year.

Where I would normally be hitting F5 every few minutes to hear about the coaching situation, my attitude now is "We'll know in a few days, so why not just wait and see then?  It will sort itself out soon enough.  It's not like me knowing a couple of days earlier is going to change anything."

 

ERdocLSA2004

December 15th, 2020 at 1:37 PM ^

You mean that money being the number one reason for having a forced and pathetic season is ruining football?!  I’m shocked!  People wondering why we should think twice before we pay college players as professionals...this is case and point.  If the #1 priority of everything is money, it ruins the sanctity of the sport.  Or politics, or healthcare, or government, or education, etc etc etc.

M Go Cue

December 15th, 2020 at 6:01 AM ^

I think the idea of this situation permanently eroding the Rose Bowl brand is a little silly.  Because of Hurricane Katrina they moved the Sugar Bowl to Atlanta in 2006 and that seemed to work out fine. 

Michfan777

December 15th, 2020 at 7:51 AM ^

First, the Rose Bowl was held in NORTH CAROLINA one year due to world events.

Second, Who cares about the rose bowl? Michigan is a Florida bowl team now. 

93Grad

December 15th, 2020 at 9:05 AM ^

Just burn the whole thing down. The B1G and PAC should just secede from the rest of college football and have the Rose Bowl as their championship every year.
 

I’m not usually a good ol days guy but for college football the new system has killed much of what made the sport great. 

rhamada

December 15th, 2020 at 9:20 AM ^

This decision is on the Governor and official (idiots) in California.  They are the ones who are risking the game.  Again, politics ruining sacred things in America.  

Teeba

December 15th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ^

If the playoff is ND, Clemson, Bama, and OSU, I think the only sensible thing to do is have bama play clemson in Atlanta and ND play OSU in Indy. Then put the championship game in Indy. We should be limiting travel. Airline travel is supposedly safe if you can avoid going to the bathroom. That doesn't work so well on a 4-5 hour flight.