With College Football’s playoff expansion stalled and frustration mounting, a new event has been created: the blame game.
The Big Ten is to blame for insisting on automatic betting on the Power Five champions.
It is the Group of Five’s fault for not giving in to the wishes of the Power Five.
It’s ACC’s fault for not supporting the extension in any form.
It’s the Rose Chalice’s fault for being… being the Rose Cup.
Only one of the six major New Year’s bowl games has been repeatedly cited as an obstacle to expansion – the one that has been around since 1902.
In media reports detailing obstacles, Grandpa was called “stubborn” and “a big problem” and described as looking for “preferred attitude” in a 12-team format.
What role does the Rose Bowl hope to play in the expanded CFP? To what extent did this contribute to the impasse? And how is Pac-12 supporting its longtime partner?
Commissioner George Klaukoff shared his thoughts late last week during an appearance on The Paul Feinbaum Show, which airs on ESPN radio and the SEC network.
Klyavkoff called the desire to create a 12-team playoff while retaining the college football tradition a “tough balance”.
He noted that the Rose Bowl “has been incredibly flexible the last couple of times we’ve changed the playoff system.”
And he acknowledged that he has “a fiduciary obligation to the Rose Bowl, just like the Big Ten.”
He also detailed what the Rose Bowl is looking for in a 12-team tournament: “They want to be January 1st at 2:00 pm PST every year.”
It doesn’t sound like much, but the extra rounds of competition make things more difficult.
The current structure allows the Rose Bowl to support the extremely valuable New Year’s time slot, whether it hosts a semi-final or not.
But the 12-team playoffs move the semi-finals to the second weekend in January. The Rose Bowl match and broadcast window will look something like this, according to the proposed three-year rotation of the six main bowls:
year one
January 1: Rose Bowl hosts quarterfinals
Second year
January 1: Rose Bowl hosts quarterfinals
Third year
January 8: Rose Bowl hosts semi-finals
“What we are asking for the pink bowl is a tiny request,” Klyavkoff told Finebaum. (Full interview here.)
“Once every three years they will hold a semi-final. They want the right to host the traditional Rose Bowl if they want to.”
That’s right: in the years that he hosts the semi-finals on January 8th (or thereabouts), the Rose Bowl also wants to host non-playoff game On January 1st at 2:00pm, it will be Pac-12 vs. Big Ten.
In other words, Grandpa wants his broadcast window to be every year, regardless of playoff rotation.
“If they do that,” Klyavkoff explained, “the value of that Rose Bowl will go down a lot” – when the match is not part of the CFP – “because if you get 12 teams into the playoffs, they won’t get our best against the best team from the Big Dozens…
“To balance out what they are giving up, we have asked that three hours out of every three years be protected from having to compete (on TV) with the CFP Quarterfinals.
“And all we asked for Rosa, a tiny request, if the other contract bowls – if the Sugar Bowl, if the Orange Bowl want similar conditions when they do the semi-finals, we would be willing to give into that too.
“Every three years we ask for protection for three hours.”
To put it another way: when the panelists grapple with the bigger issues delaying playoff expansion (12 teams vs. eight and auto betting distribution), the Rose Bowl is a handy hurdle for those looking for hurdles.
Once the broader structure has been worked out, the grandfather’s request should not delay the process.
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