Report: CFP Gives Rose Bowl Ultimatum Before Expansion In 2024
Nov 29, 2022, 4:01 PM | Updated: Nov 30, 2022, 9:50 am
(Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – According to ESPN, the College Football Playoff leaders issued an ultimatum to the Rose Bowl to determine whether the CFP can expand in 2024.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich reported that the CFP leaders gave the Rose Bowl a deadline of Wednesday to determine whether the CFP can expand in time for the start of the 2024 season. If the Rose Bowl can’t agree to the terms, there is a possibility that they could be excluded from the New Year’s Six bowl rotation in the next contract.
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The CFP issued a deadline of Wednesday to the Rose Bowl to decide if it can expand in time for the 2024 regular season.
Without agreeing to terms, it could be excluded from the New Year's Six bowl rotation in the next contract, sources told @CFBHeather.https://t.co/LR19CkEaGd
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 29, 2022
Last year, the Utes played Ohio State in the 100th Rose Bowl Game that was played in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.
CFP Gives Rose Bowl Ultimatum
“We want the Rose Bowl,” a CFP source said. “We have a good partnership with the six bowls we are affiliated with. We do. And we want to continue with that. I hope the Rose Bowl will be part of that, but there’s no guarantee in any of that. None.”
According to Dinich, if the CFP doesn’t expand in 2024, they will lose roughly $450 million in potential gross revenue. Laura Farber, the chair of the Rose Bowl management committee told ESPN earlier this month that they wanted the game to maintain the exclusive broadcast window of January 1 at 3 p.m. MT, including the years that they host a CFP semifinal.
This year, the CFP semifinals are the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl, both to be played on December 31. The CFP National Championship game is scheduled for January 9, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
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Farber spoke with ESPN this month and said that the Rose Bowl was willing to be flexible.
“For anyone to say that the Rose Bowl Game is the sole reason right now that expansion may not happen before the current cycle runs out is categorically wrong,” Farber said. “Yes, we need to work through the details of our contract and our separate broadcast agreement, but we remain open to that.”
Dinich’s report indicated that the Rose Bowl was willing to temporarily concede its relationship with the Big Ten and Pac-12 Conferences in order to host a quarterfinal game in 2024 and 2025, but asked for assurances in the new contract. The current 12-year deal runs through the 2025 season.