Desmond Howard calls for College Football Playoff to host national championship at the Rose Bowl every year

All kinds of changes are being asked for across college football. Everyone seemingly has different opinions on multiple topics. But one popular one that plenty of people tend to agree with is a consistent location for the national championship, the Rose Bowl.

ESPN’s Desmond Howard was the latest to propose the idea when appearing on First Take. Howard called it the most iconic venue this sport has to offer, almost always taking place on New Year’s Day. If there could be some workaround with the calendar, he would crown a champion in Pasadena every single year.

“The Rose Bowl, the Grandaddy of Them All,” Howard said. “I have conversations all the time with (Kirk) Herbstreit and we’re of the opinion that the national championship game should be played here every year, no matter what. This is the best venue that college football has to offer to watch a college football game.”

Since the implementation of the BCS, the Rose Bowl has hosted four national championships. However, all of those were during the BCS era, not being the venue since the College Football Playoff took over. Florida State‘s win over Auburn to end the 2013 season was the last one. Instead, it’s been the site of countless CFP semifinal games with the aim of keeping its traditional date and kickoff time.

As of now, there are no plans for a national championship game to take place at the Grandaddy of Them All, either. NFL stadiums will be the venue for the next five years, beginning with Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Jan. 19. No further announcement has been made on anything past 2029.

Howard makes this claim while currently in Pasadena. He is set to work for ESPN before and during the Rose Bowl, a game where the Alabama Crimson Tide will face the Indiana Hoosiers. Once again, the Rose Bowl is a quarterfinal matchup in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. Ohio State and Oregon took the same field exactly a year ago, a game dominated by the Buckeyes from start to finish.

Some changes to the CFP schedule certainly would be needed to bring the national championship to the Rose Bowl. Right now, it takes nearly two months to complete the CFP from the time of Selection Sunday. And if they plan on keeping the Jan. 1 date, the first round, quarterfinal, and semifinal games would need to be significantly pushed up.