Pac-12 commissioner: Rose Bowl does not run college football

Pac-12 commissioner George Kilavkoff sounded off on his perception of the Rose Bowl, and his take may be a surprise to his conference’s loyal fans.

“The Rose Bowl is a more than 100 year old tradition,” Kilavkoff said on the Paul Finebaum Show. “It is core to college football does or does it run college football? Absolutely not.”

The best team coming out of the Pac-12 every season, barring a College Football Playoff berth, will take on the best of the Big 10 under the same circumstances.

In the years before the CFP was implemented, earning a Rose Bowl bid was just as sweet as ending up in the BCS Championship game, and even now is grouped into the New Year’s Six bowl games with the playoff bowls and others.

Kliavkoff praised that flexibility the Rose Bowl has shown over the years, specifically because the committee that puts the game together is very specific on how the game wants to be run each year.

“They want to be January 1 at 2pm pacific time every single year,” Kliavkoff said. “They’ve agreed not to do that to host a semi final game in the current construct of the CFP.”

With talks of playoff expansion to an eight or a 12-team model over the next few seasons, the Rose Bowl wants in on the love that the Orange and Sugar Bowl have in 2021 — they want to be a part of the playoffs.

“What we’ve said is if we go to a format where the six New Year’s Eve bowl games are playing on a rotating three year basis: quarterfinal, quarterfinal semifinal — those quarterfinals, either an eight-team or a 12-team model would fall during the New Year’s weekend, and presumably the Rose Bowl, if it was hosting a quarterfinal win hosted in its traditional time,” Kliavkoff said.

As a semifinal game once every three years, the committee would have their coveted 2 p.m. PT Rose Bowl spot they’ve been wanting since the CFP inception nearly a decade ago.

Kliavkoff believes it will be difficult to expand the college football playoffs and also hold on to the great traditions throughout the New Year’s Six bowl game slate, and that’s just one of the several matters delaying the expansion of the playoffs.

“We’ve asked for three hours every three years to be protected against having to compete against a CFP quarterfinal and everything that we’ve asked for the Rose Bowl — a tiny ask, we’ve said if the other contract bowls like the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl want similar accommodations in the years where they’re hosting a semifinal, we’d be willing to give into that as well,” Kliavkoff said.