Rose Bowl Remains Obstacle to Early CFP Expansion

The future of the sport’s most historic bowl game is one of the unknowns regarding potential playoff expansion.

As college football moves toward expansion, there are numerous details that still need to be ironed out. With many of the sport’s power brokers pushing for a 12-team field as early as 2024, one of the looming questions to be ironed out is rooted in the game’s past: What will become of The Granddaddy of Them All?

The Rose Bowl is college football’s most iconic bowl game, with over a century’s worth of memorable moments. All parties involved in College Football Playoff expansion negotiations are working toward a necessary unanimous agreement on all terms, and how the Rose Bowl fits into the future plans is still part of the discussion, according to ESPN’s Heather Dinich.

The key issue is the game’s exclusive rights to the much-coveted Jan. 1 or Jan. 2 broadcast window. The Rose Bowl has shown a willingness to be flexible with its historic Big Ten-Pac-12 affiliation in order to work with the CFP’s rotating semifinal host site schedule, per Dinich, but would like assurances about the time and date slot in the new contract.

“The possibility of early entry to an expanded College Football Playoff is not something we’re against,” Laura Farber, chair of the Rose Bowl Management Committee, said. “We continue to work with the CFP on this issue. We last spoke two weeks ago to the CFP, but have not heard back from the CFP.”

Under the current proposal for a 12-team field in 2024, the Cotton and Orange bowls would host the semifinals, with the Fiesta and Peach bowls hosting in ’25. The Rose Bowl would have to agree to give up its partnership with the Big Ten and Pac-12 should it host a quarterfinal game featuring teams from other conferences. In years that the Rose Bowl does not host a quarterfinal game, the CFP could host games against the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Dinich cited sources within the CFP that have grown frustrated that the Rose Bowl is presenting scheduling obstacles for the playoff that the other bowl games are not, a notion that Farber vehemently disagrees with.

“For anyone to say that the Rose Bowl Game is the sole reason right now that expansion may not happen before the current cycle runs out is categorically wrong,” Farber said. “Yes, we need to work through the details of our contract and our separate broadcast agreement, but we remain open to that. There are also issues not specific to our game that need to be resolved, including the NFL schedule, revenue sharing and on-campus schedules.”

Farber touted the game’s historic ties to New Year’s Day and the Rose Parade, aspects that she was eager to maintain as the sport enters further uncharted territory.

“You start out with the Rose Parade, and on the same day you have the Rose Bowl Game to celebrate the start of the New Year," Farber said. "It’s not only tradition, it’s part of the brand, and who we are, and what has been built since 1903.”