As CFP expansion talks heat up, what to do with the Rose Bowl?

If the College Football Playoff and its Board of Managers choose to take a more deliberate approach en route to expanding the current four-team field — as all momentum suggests — they will be kicking one big issue down the road: What to do with the Rose Bowl?

No setting offers a better backdrop for a meaningful football game, framed by the picturesque sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains every New Year’s Day. The idyllic ambiance is enhanced by tradition, with the Rose Bowl played every year since 1916. It’s not called the “Granddaddy of Them All” for nothing. The Rose Bowl is special, unrivaled and spectacular. 

And if you don’t believe me, just ask the Rose Bowl. It believes it deserves preferential treatment. 

Problem is, in a 12-team expanded playoff model, six bowls would host the four quarterfinal games and two semifinals on a rotating basis. With the semifinals played later each January, the Rose Bowl would not be guaranteed to host its annual game at 5 p.m. ET every January 1. It also wouldn’t be guaranteed the traditional interconference Big Ten-Pac-12 matchup.

These are among the conditions that are so important to the Rose Bowl that Laura Farber, the chair of the Rose Bowl management committee, sent a memo (obtained by Andy Wittry) to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and then-Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott detailing why the Rose Bowl deserves special treatment in an expanded playoff format.

Among the conditions outlined:

• A “most favored nation” status among bowl games for hosting the CFP semifinals and championship.

• The development of an independent media contract with the Rose Bowl Game, the Pac-12, the Big Ten and a telecast entity for an annual quarterfinal game.

• The quarterfinal Rose Bowl Game “shall occur” on January 1 in the traditional window beginning around 5 p.m. ET.

• Preferred access for the Rose Bowl Game on an equal rotating basis to a Pac-12 or Big Ten team available for that round of play.

Checking in with a variety of prominent industry officials on the potential standoff between the Rose Bowl and CFP — the Grandaddy of All Monkey Wrenches? — revealed this: At this point, the Rose Bowl has no leverage. Some view Farber’s April 6 memo as a sign that the Rose Bowl is operating in this predicament from a position of weakness. 

That letter, one source said, was basically the Rose Bowl saying, “Larry, Kevin, we’ve been there for you all these years — save our ass.”

Is there a compromise for the Rose Bowl?

If conditions aren’t met, would the Rose Bowl actually choose to opt-out of an expanded structure? What is needed from the folks in Pasadena, sources said, is nimbleness. 

While some matchups over the years have been better than others, tuning in to the Rose Bowl in the late afternoon on the East Coast long has been a tradition for millions. But as some in the television industry noted, you could slide a quarterfinal CFP game in that 5 p.m. ET time slot, have it played in the Cotton Bowl, Liberty Bowl or Cheez-It Bowl, and still see a dominant number in the ratings game.

At an appropriate time, sources said, expect the CFP to certainly try to engage the Rose Bowl in conversation and perhaps reach a compromise. Here is one solution that sources broached: Award the Rose Bowl a permanent quarterfinal game locked into that afternoon Jan. 1 window to be played following the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. Yes, it would lose hosting an occasional semifinal game. And staging annual quarterfinal matchups between Pac-12 and Big Ten teams appears unrealistic and thorny as tournament seeding will determine matchups. 

“That is the only solution,” one prominent college athletics official said. “If they make accommodations for the Rose Bowl, it’s not going to be at the expense of the entire system.”

But if the New Year’s Day window is the most important factor for the Rose Bowl, would it make those concessions? It may have no other option. 

There are a variety of other issues in play: Do quarterfinal matchups remain in bowl venues? An argument can be made that quarterfinals should be played at home sites of the teams that earned the best seeds. Though winter weather looms as an issue, football-crazed college towns would benefit immensely from the revenue, and the in-venue atmospheres would be far less sterile. But there actually is movement in the other direction, sources said, meaning that the first-round games that were slated for home venues in the expansion model could wind up at bowl sites. 

What will commissioners do?

The memo suggests Farber is calling on the bowl’s conference partners to assist in making its case. But it remains to be seen how far Warren or new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff will go to beat the drum and endorse the Rose Bowl’s conditions. On this issue, the belief is that the absence of Jim Delany in the commissioner’s chair in the Big Ten is significant, as is the era that has dawned in college sports: Conferences need to look out for themselves to maintain level footing with other Power 5 leagues or risk getting left behind.

Neither Kliavkoff nor Warren was on the working group that devised the proposed 12-team model. But Kliavkoff has been a strong proponent of expansion (though he recently signaled for a more deliberate tact), and it’s lost on no one how badly his conference needs to find a pathway into the CFP after earning just two berths in the seven-year existence of the property.

In a statement sent to On3, the Rose Bowl said it regularly communicates with its conference partners to discuss both the bowl game as well as the broader college football landscape. From the BCS to the current CFP model, Rose Bowl officials acknowledge that the postseason continues to evolve and contend that the Rose Bowl has demonstrated flexibility over the years.

The Rose Bowl also said it would continue to work with the CFP, suggesting it will strive to achieve a balance between celebrating the game’s tradition and embracing this era of rapid change. The statement read in part: “As we look to the future, we want to be a part of the process, and we know that change and innovation will only make college football better. We’d be remiss if we didn’t recognize that the tradition and history of our game is important to us, but we are confident that the future of college football can honor the tradition of the Rose Bowl Game while also doing what is best for college football and its student-athletes.”

The Board of Managers, comprised of 11 university presidents and chancellors from FBS conferences, is scheduled to meet in late September. This is just one of the issues for all stakeholders. But at some point, it will have to be addressed. 

The Rose Bowl made its stance clear. And some believe it’s time the CFP and its Board of Managers draw a firm line. As one official said, “No longer is everyone going to adjust everything to accommodate the Rose Bowl.”