The new Rose Bowl Contract Desperately Hopes for Notre Dame Success
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg has an interesting piece up on his Big Ten football blog today focusing on some new rules under the upcoming BCS contract, slated to begin in 2010. The Rose Bowl seems to be the biggest victim.
Under the terms of the new BCS contract the Rose Bowl would be forced to take a BCS eligible team from a non BCS conference if it lost the Big Ten or PAC 10 champion to a BCS Championship game. Let me give you an example.
The situation could easily be reversed as well. Should USC advance to the BCS championship game the Rose Bowl would have to pick Utah if they qualified for the BCS games. If Penn State represented the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl as conference champions they would have to play Utah.
While much has been made about showing teams like Utah and Boise State more respect when it comes to big time bowl games, they have earned it, and giving conferences like the WAC and Mountain West more of a piece of the BCS pie, I still see this purely as a move to get Notre Dame back in the mix.
Notre Dame, who does not play in a conference, lives by their own BCS qualifier. All they have to do is rank in the top ten of the BCS and it would be near impossible for a BCS bowl to NOT pick them. Bowl games are about money and Notre Dame fans are everywhere. While the Rose Bowl may be weary of having to showcase a BYU-Oregon bowl game, they thought of a Notre Dame-Penn State, Notre Dame-Ohio State, Notre Dame-Michigan, must be fascinating.
But what if the BCS Championship game pits the champions of the PAC 10 and the Big Ten? What if the Rose Bowl lost both of their automatic bids? According to the rules of the contract they would have to pick the first BCS qualifier not from a non-BCS conference if applicable, then they would likely would get one of the first picks of the draw form the rest of the BCS qualifiers.
Don’t expect this to be a regular problem form year to year though, as the contract only states that this scenario would happen the first time the Rose Bowl loses a Big Ten or PAC 10 champion.
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Makes zero sense. I agree that the non-BCS schools should be represented, but why don't we give them their own tie-in? The Rose Bowl IS the premiere attraction after the BCS Championship game. It should be kept that way. Not that BCS schools are “undeserving” but the point is to give them a better shot at the championship game. But giving them more money and a Rose Bowl big will certainly be good hush money for the non-BCS commissioners.
We need a playoff.
Yea, the Rose Bowl was the like the hottest ticket in town. If you weren't from the Big Ten or the Pac 10, odds are it was near impossible for you to attend. It was bad enough teams like Texas were allowed in occasionally due to the BCS, now mid majors?! Not to sound elitist, but that just devalues the bowl and its tradition.
“When Penn State goes 12-0 this year….”
That made me laugh.
What's so funny about it?
Beat Iowa first…
Makes zero sense. I agree that the non-BCS schools should be represented, but why don't we give them their own tie-in? The Rose Bowl IS the premiere attraction after the BCS Championship game. It should be kept that way. Not that BCS schools are “undeserving” but the point is to give them a better shot at the championship game. But giving them more money and a Rose Bowl big will certainly be good hush money for the non-BCS commissioners.
We need a playoff.
Yea, the Rose Bowl was the like the hottest ticket in town. If you weren't from the Big Ten or the Pac 10, odds are it was near impossible for you to attend. It was bad enough teams like Texas were allowed in occasionally due to the BCS, now mid majors?! Not to sound elitist, but that just devalues the bowl and its tradition.
“When Penn State goes 12-0 this year….”
That made me laugh.
What's so funny about it?
Beat Iowa first…