Will the Rose Bowl reconsider its BCS position?

[Steve19]

Has the AP poll withdrawal from the BCS mix created an opportunity for the Rose Bowl to return to tradition?

There is little secret that the Rose Bowl did not want to abandon the allure of its Big 10 - PAC 10 matchups, but did so because the BCS National Championship impacted on those leagues being able to send their best teams to the game.

The draw of a split national championship was not very strong when the BCS included the AP poll. That may have changed now that the AP has withdrawn its poll, which has strong media support, ESPiN withdrawn its support for the coaches poll, and a new poll been announced.

The potential for controversy and change seems high. The new poll may provide some biased voting because of the large representation of smaller conferences and an unknown voting contingent, despite the credibility of Harris Polls being on the line and the inclusion of media in an attempt to bring balance. Add to that the mayhem that may result when the coaches' final votes is made public in the final voting for both BCS-related polls.

The Rose Bowl is losing its traditions quickly. First, the conference allure is lost. Now, the game moves from the 1st of January. Its leaders will know that there is a lot at stake and the "Granddaddy of them all" is increasingly becoming no more than the other BCS bowls.

Will the Rose Bowl reconsider its position? Will it return to its past, now that the potential exists for a viable national championship claim for its participants? If all goes smoothly with the BCS this year, maybe not. But what if USC, Tennessee and tOSU are undefeated and the former two teams play for the BCS in the Rose Bowl?

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Playoffs. They will happen, eventually...whether it be 3, 5, 10, or 20 years from now. The only thing that is stopping it is how to keep bowls intact and involved.

We'll never see "the old bowls" again. Fans and press used to tolerate, and sometimes even accept and appreciate, split national titles. Not today. Not in the "there can be only one champion" mindset of today.

 

[jwinslow]

Unless of course the media darling is the team that got screwed... and then they can tolerate it.

 

[Darkhorse79]

We'll never see "the old bowls" again.

We should have known that as soon as we started seeing the dot-com bowls. Hell, even the Rose Bowl sold itself to AT&T.

Need I bring up THE (SBC) Game???

 

[High Lonesome]

"But what if USC, Tennessee and tOSU are undefeated and the former two teams play for the BCS in the Rose Bowl?"

All this scenerio points out is the lunicy of preseason polls, if those three teams go undefeated then the only way that tosu doesnt make it over tenn is because they started lower in the polls.

As far as the tradition of the rose bowl, it hasn't gone anywhere. You have to remember that all of the bcs bowls had confrence ties and a history(save maybe the fiesta i don't claim to know about it). As Mili said the old bowl system is gone but as long as people continue to talk about the rose bowl in the manner that they do then its history and importance will always be there. It is still the "grandaddy of them all" still more beautifull than any other bowl and still holds a place in the hearts of college football fans, it just doesnt have the ties anymore. In fact i would go so far as to point out that the only bowls that DO have ties anymore are the lower tier bowls.

Oh and I LOVE the SBC Red River Shootout

 

[Dryden]

I don't know that the AP poll will have any bearing on the Rose Bowl specifically. I think the AP pulling their poll from the BCS was a major blow and a step towards ending the current iteration of the BCS, which is on the verge of becoming irrelevent if the AP will continue to crown their own champion anyway, but as far as the Rose Bowl goes, they've already committed to the BCS through 2010.

While I'm a strong college football traditionalist and consider Big XII teams participating in the Rose Bowl sacriligious, I don't know that the Rose is really worse off now than they would have been had things continued their course after the 1997 season (the 1998 Rose Bowl Game).

The 1998, 1999 and 2000 seasons allowed the Rose to continue their Big-10/Pac-10 match-ups.

2001 was the Rose's turn to host the BCS-title game, and I think the Rose made out like bandits by getting the monumental Miami v. Nebraska, as opposed to a turd like Oregon v. Illinois, regardless of how big an egg the Cornhuskers laid in that game.

2002 did steal some luster as the Rose lost the opportunity at an instant classic USC v. Ohio State game, and again in 2004 when the Rose lost what would have been a USC v. Michigan rematch from the previous year, but there is no arguing that the Texas v. UM game was a classic.

As things stand now, looking at the games that the Rose has gotten and avoided thanks to the BCS, I would guess that the Rose has come out on the plus side of the equation to date. For the Rose to reconsider their position, there would need to be both Pac-10 and Big-10 dynasties peaking at the same time. The Rose would essentially have to lose three or four consecutive, historic games with national title implications a la the mid-70's USC v. OSU clashes.

EDIT: If the measure of success for a bowl game is TV ratings and money injected into the local economy, I would think having another bowl (the Orange) pluck USC away twice leaving the Rose with out-of-state contenders like Washington State and Texas was a HUGE boost. The TV ratings are still among the top for all televised CFB games, so I guess I don't see that there is a problem for the Rose.