New Year’s Day used to be one of the greatest days on the sports calendar. From watching the Rose Parade at breakfast, to sunset at the Rose Bowl, seeing all the festivities in Pasadena in between, it just felt special. You’d get a couple other games, be it the Sugar Bowl, Citrus Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, etc. etc.. It just meant something to play in one of college football’s marquee games as we turned the page from one year to another. Championships were decided. Meaningful games were played from morning to evening, and having the day off of work meant being a complete lazy piece of crap and not leaving the couch all day.
So, I completely understand that the people running the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl want to keep the games on New Year’s Day, and uphold the sanctity of that football holiday. Both locked in contracts with ESPN to keep the games on New Year’s Day for the next several seasons. But, because of that, the reality is that the most meaningful games aren’t always going to be played on New Year’s Day because of the way the College Football Playoff rotates playoff games among the ‘New Year’s Six’ bowls.
This amazing sunset at the Rose Bowl tho…. pic.twitter.com/m0f1bzO8z9
— ShootYourShotSports (@shootyourshotsp) January 2, 2020
This year’s CFP games were played on December 28th. Four days prior to the new year. I watched LSU curb stomp Oklahoma. I stayed awake for as long as I could during Clemson vs. Ohio State. That was appointment television. But, admittedly, once those games were over, I circled January 13th on my calendar and moved on. The Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl were, quite frankly, afterthoughts. And, for a large segment of football fans, that seemed to be the case, too.
Yesterday’s Rose Bowl had it all. It was a close, exciting game between two top 10 teams, both teams clearly cared…clearly wanted to win. That isn’t always the case in some of these bowl games these days. There was a bit of controversy in some questionable officiating, which has people talking this morning. You’ve already seen the beauty of the sunset at the Rose Bowl. That sunset reflecting in the helmets of the Oregon Ducks had people talking, too. We even had the classic half naked guy on the field last night. It was a downright whirlwind of emotion.
And, I regret to inform you all that I saw none of it…because in years like this one, New Year’s Day is no longer appointment television in college football. What does it mean to the nation that Oregon won the Rose Bowl? That they might finish fifth instead of sixth? Same with Georgia.
Don’t get me wrong. The playoff is the way to go. I actually think we should be allowing eight teams into the playoffs. But, when you don’t have a playoff matchup, you devalue the game a bit no matter what. I don’t care if you’re the Sugar Bowl or the New Orleans Bowl.
Still, there has to be a way to make everyone happy here. I’m not even suggesting that we move the Rose Bowl to a different day. The Sugar Bowl might have to budge, and we’d definitely have to have a chat with the Outback Bowl, but there’s room for two playoff games.
Or, we could just make these two games permanent playoff games. Fans of tradition are no doubt twitching at the idea. But, nothing about the College Football Playoff is traditional in the grand scheme of college football. Lest we forget, this concept is still pretty new. Some traditions are going to have to be sacrificed. Hell, we’ve already sacrificed the importance of New Year’s Day. So, maybe it is a ‘one or the other’ situation.
I don’t know…I’m just spitballin’ here.
The bottom line is that it’s hard to pay great attention to all of these games when the bowl schedule is saturated with what feels like hundreds of games to keep up with, and when some of the teams don’t even care to show up. It kind of feels like the folks at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl are clinging on to New Year’s Day tightly…I just wish they’d give it up. The only way to get back to the holiday meaning what it used to is to play the playoff games then. That’s on the folks that run these two bowl games.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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