Rose Bowl agreement clears way for College Football Playoff's 12-team expansion in 2024 and 2025

[Auggie]

The Rose Bowl has signed an agreement with the College Football Playoff that paves the way for the event to expand to 12 teams starting in 2024, sources confirm to CBS Sports. The CFP had given the Rose Bowl until the end of the week -- at the latest -- to agree to terms the bowl had thus far been unwilling to accept.

With the Rose Bowl now in the fold, a formal announcement of a 12-team playoff being held in 2024 and 2025 is expected imminently. The new format was initially agreed upon by the CFP Board of Managers in September.

Though the terms of the agreement signed by the Rose Bowl are not yet known, the bowl had been demanding to play its game in its traditional time slot at 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 despite playoff expansion potentially affecting the bowl schedule. That time slot is considered one of the most valuable in sports television. The agreement signed by the Rose Bowl likely creates significantly more flexibility in that scheduling process.

In an expanded playoff, the games themselves are more important than the bowls that host the contests. The Rose Bowl refusing to acquiesce to a more uniform scheduling policy would have delayed expansion until 2026 after the CFP's current contract with ESPN ends. That would have cost involved parties an estimated $450 million in added revenue, and it may have kept the Rose Bowl out of the selection process once a new contract was signed.

Full story: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/rose-bowl-agreement-clears-way-for-college-football-playoffs-12-team-expansion-in-2024-and-2025/

The CFP left the Rose Bowl with no choice but to acquiesce.

[underpants]

1. I get the sense that the Rose Bowl wanted to be the last

I’d guess that they think very highly of themselves

[Auggie]

4. Exactly. They think highly of money too.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Isn't a 12 team playoff like having another football season in the winter?

So the college football players are playing another semester?

When do the they attend classes?

How much revenue are the universities bringing in with this plan?

[underpants]

5. 3 or 4 more games. There tends to be a gap between games for the top teams

Ohio State got their butts kicked last weekend ☹️ and won’t play again for about a month. Michigan will have the Big 10 Championship then a break.

Yeah it’s an extra 3 games at least. 4 teams will have to play the first games of this tournament.

Over 3 years yes that is an extra season for the guys playing at the perennial powers.

[House of Roberts]

6. 1 through 4 will get a bye in the first round,

and the lower 8 will play, with the winners facing the top 4 teams in the second round.

[underpants]

9. Okay I had that backwards

Thanks

[Botany]

3. Now we will have even more endless hype for college football.

Breathless sports talkers on why the the North Texas State Devil Dawgs @ #14 did not make
playoffs. BTW the vast majority of colleges lose money on football and other sports.

[Xavier Breath]

7. After what they pulled last year

in the Fenway Bowl, the NTS Devil Dogs are dead to me

I love how four teams were the 'bestest' number ever to be picked and shame on anyone that didn't agree, but then, what the hell, let's triple it! IMHO six would have been perfect and eight tolerable. Twelve is ridiculous.

Of course I'll watch, but I'll won't feel at all good about it.

[Auggie]

8. Yeah ... Eight is Enough

Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

[Botany]

10. But the New Mexico Spotted Ground Squirrels are a lock to make it to the playoffs this year

Last edited Thu Dec 1, 2022, 05:45 PM - Edit history (1)

BTW I grew up a big ten and OSU fan but the big ten/Pac 12 link up kind of pisses me off ...
multiple transcontinental flights producing tons of CO2 for college football (err NFL minor
leagues) is kind of off putting.

[Xavier Breath]

11. I miss the simple days of Michigan and OSU battling

for who would play in the Rose Bowl. That always seemed to be more than enough to root for. In today's climate I guess that makes me a relic of a bygone era.

These days I spend my time and my dollars watching our local college play. It's a non-scholarship program, with kids playing just for the love of the sport. No insane NIL or tv deals, maybe a couple thousand spectators if the weather's decent. It's a nice refuge from the dirty money and corporate forces running roughshod over this sport.

[Botany]

12. Have you ever seen a mid week MAC game on ESPN? There is almost nobody in the stands because

on a "school night" the students are working. I watched my alma mater Ohio U playing for
the division championship a week ago and the stands were empty.

Big Time College football is now a multi billion $ biz.

[Xavier Breath]

13. Ah yes, Wednesday night "MACtion."

The crowds are sad, true, and I feel bad for the players. They should get to play on a Saturday afternoon in front of a decent-sized crowd, not on a school night with 73 people in the stands and (I'm guessing) a comparatively small tv audience.

[Botany]

14. You can tell by the way the do the camera shots the stands are empty ....

I remember seeing part of a game on an cold damp night in Athens w/nobody there and the
cheerleaders doing their act in front of a wall so as not to show how empty the stands were.

[Xavier Breath]

15. Yeah, if they don't show the ball's arc

on a punt and instead pan the ground, it's a dead giveaway

[roamer65]

16. IMO...I rather just see 8 team playoffs.