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The Rose Bowl management committee wants to keep its traditional date and time of Jan. 1 at 5 p.m. ET for all future games as Division I-FCS college football transitions to a 12-team playoff long term, and College Football Playoff commissioners are considering that request, per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
Ross Dellenger @RossDellenger
CFP commissioners are considering the Rose Bowl’s request, sources tell @YahooSports. Long form agreements for the CFP’s six bowl games are expected to be complete in the coming weeks.
If the Rose’s request is granted, other CFP bowl games must agree to take the other semifinals
The 2024 and 2025 College Football Playoff slates have already been scheduled, and the Rose Bowl is slotted in at the traditional date and time as a quarterfinal matchup.
The question is whether that happens in 2026 and beyond, which would in essence place the Rose Bowl as a de-facto permanent quarterfinal matchup in the 12-team playoff.
With the way the 12-team playoff structure looks right now, first-round games will go down the week leading up to Christmas. Quarterfinals are then set for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, with semifinals about a week after. The championship game is scheduled for Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 20 in 2025 and Jan. 19 in 2026).
The Rose Bowl, which is held in Pasadena, California, has almost always been held on Jan. 1 since becoming a yearly event in 1916. The main exception has been if Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday. In that case, the game is shifted to Jan. 2.
So obviously, the Rose Bowl moving to an entirely different week would represent a major shift and a break in over 100 years of tradition.
It’s understandable why the management committee may not be keen on such a move, even if it precludes the Rose Bowl from ever hosting a semifinal or final game for the foreseeable future.
But for now, we know for certain that the Rose Bowl is sticking with Jan. 1 for at least the next two years as the 12-team College Football Playoff era begins.
