In the paper, it was mentioned that next year’s Rose Bowl will be the National Championship game (it rotates among certain bowls). My question: What does this mean for the Big 10 and the other conference that normally plays in the Rose Bowl? Will they be SOL or is there an alternate spot for them?
The Nat. Champ. will be AT the Rose Bowl. It won’t BE the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl is not just the name of a game, it is also the name of the stadium. I believe the championship is scheduled for Jan. 3 or 4. The Rose Bowl game is played on Jan. 1 after the parade in Pasadena.
Oops.
On reflection, I may not know what the Hell I’m talking about. Here’s a rather old page that tries to answer your question. It lists THE Rose Bowl (the game as opposed to the stadium) as the site for the 2002 Nat. Championship game.
The Pac 10 - Big 10 championship matchup has more tradition than a national championship. Wasn’t it last year that UCLA, the Pac 10 champ, was not going to play the Rose Bowl because they were going to some Nat Champ Bowl? Fortunately, they lost the deciding game and played the Rose Bowl. There is no way UCLA is going to catch up with USC at Rose Bowl victories if they go off playing in National Championship Bowls. Rose Bowl tradition will be around for a long time while the Nat Championship procedure is changed and modified again and again.
Getting the Rose Bowl to join in the BCS (Bowl Coalition Series) enabled the big bowls to guarantee a #1 vs #2 matchup in one of its games.
The Rose Bowl is the only of the four BCS bowls that was allowed to keep its long standing conference tie-ins (back to 1947).
As someone who has seen six Rose Bowls in person, I can say that it is one of the most impressive sporting events to watch. The Rose Bowl is an old uncomfortable stadium, but the game always makes up for it.
Thanks for the site, Ursa, but none of their frequently asked questions matched mine. I guess I’ll have to get more people to ask it. 
Seriously, though, it looks to me like on the years when the Rose Bowl is a championship bowl, there is no alternative place for the Big 10 and Pac 10 champs to play. If true, that sucks.
David, the PAC10 and BIG10 are BCS members and as such their champions will be eligible for the BCS series. If they are consensus #1 and #2, they could face each other in the Rose Bowl for all the marbles, but that’s unlikely. The new set-up for post-season play leads to some strange bowl pairings, such as this year’s Sugar Bowl, where there is no SEC team involved for the first time in many years. One day, maybe a play-off to determine a true champion.
David -
1 year out of four, there may be a Rose Bowl without a Big 10 or Pac 10 team. In these years, the BCS championship games replaces the traditional pairing for the Rose Bowl.
In the other 3 years, while the matchup of the 2 conference champions is POSSIBLE, it is not guaranteed. If either the big 10 or Pac 10 champion finishes their regular season #1 or #2 in the BCS rankings, they will not play in the Rose Bowl, but rather in whichever of the other 3 bowls is hosting the BCS chamionship that year.
In other words, money has triumphed over tradition, once again. As an OU graduate, I mourn the lack of an annual OU-Nebraska game. That was a casualty of the Big 8 becoming the Big 12. There are ample opportunities for new traditions - I think OU vs. Texas A&M will become a great one, but the annual OU-Nebraska shootouts, IMO, were unmatched for gimmick plays (that worked), excitement (they were usually the Friday after Thanksgiving & very often affected the top 5 rankings), and last-team-to-score-wins wildness.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Sue said:
As I understand it, if one of the Big 10 or Pac 10 teams is #1 or #2, then the second place in that division goes to the Rose Bowl. Am I correct, or could it go elsewhere entirely?
I think it sucks that money won out here. I mean, what are Big 10 (and I guess Pac 10) fans going to chant when their teams are winning (at least every 4th year)? It used to be “ROSE BOWL ROSE BOWL.” Now what, “SOME BOWL SOME BOWL”? Jeez.
Makes me feel like an old fogey. “In MY day, the top Big 10 team went to the Rose Bowl! And we walked to school uphill 10 miles in the snow, you young whippersnapper!”
David posts:
Well, probably no one ever got hurt by “ROSE BOWL” chants, but a lot of people in the lower rows at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium used to get beaned by oranges thrown from the student seating higher up after every touchdown. They’re probably much happier with Rose petals, Sugar cubes, or tortillas (Fiesta Bowl.)
- Sue from El Paso
Coincidentally, Couch Cafeteria always offered lots of oranges for breakfast on game days…
Well, Sue, that puts an end to Pittsburgh’s plans for an “Anvil Bowl”!
If a Big 10 or Pac-10 team goes to the National Championship game, the Rose Bowl would pick whomever they wanted from the eligible teams (ranked 1-12, at least 9 wins or a conference champ). The runnerup has no official claim to a bid.
Thanks, Bob. Well, I guess if you’re a member of a #1 or #2 team that happens to be in the Pac-10 or Big-10, you’d probably rather go to a championship bowl than the Rose Bowl, so I guess I don’t mind that part as much. I still mind the Rose Bowl losing its meaning 25% of the time, but, dammit, they didn’t ask me before changing it!
One the one hand, while it sucks losing the ‘tradition’ of the matchup between the Big-10(11) and Pac(plusAZ)-10 champ, consider for a moment that the Rose Bowl game didn’t always match those teams. I would have to consult an almanac to be sure, but as I recall, that matchup didn’t get guaranteed until sometime around 1945.
Still, Jan 1 without the Midwest v. Pacific matchup will be a poor day.
The first contracted game between what is now the Big 10 and the Pac-10 was on 1/1/1947. Illinois beat UCLA in that game, 45-14.
Despite what the previous poster said, the Pac-10 only has 10 schools. Arizona and Arizona State changed the Pac-8 into the Pac-10.
Love them Illini
Actually what he was trying to say is not that the Pac-10 has 12 teams with the AZ teams, but that it isn’t truly the “Pacific”-10 because Arizona doesn’t happen to be on the ocean. Methinks you shouldn’t be so upitty.
Just wanted to uphold the fact that even though the Pac-10 is getting waxed every year in the Rose Bowl by the Big ~10, at least the schools out here can count correctly.
Those Illini did get some payback in 1984 when they made it out to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA again. The Bruins won that day 45-9.
Now if we could only do something about those darn Cheeseheads.
Great. You think it’s bad that the Pac(+AridZona)-10 team gets waxed every year now? (Note: I can count and comprehend what I read…) Try this on: now, if the Big-11 champ goes elsewhere, the Rose Bowl can “pick whomever they want…from the eligible teams (ranked 1-12, at least 9 wins or a conference champ)” - and we can watch Texas A&M or the University of Miami or Nebraska win the Rose Bowl.
That’s ok, Sue, there’s always TEXAS to beat the hell out of OU!!
“I hear the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.”
-T.S. Eliot