Does anyone besides Brent Musberger call the Rose Bowl the “Granddaddy of them All”. I would think the Granddaddy of them All would be the National Championship but; I’m just a knowledgeable sports writer who’s followed college football for the last 5 seasons. No big deal. I think the Rose Bowl is a joke and the last three years have proved it.
Here are the scores from the last three Rose Bowls:
USC 38 vs Penn State 24
USC 49 vs. Illinois 17
USC 32 vs. Michigan 18
The last exciting Rose Bowl was 2006 when it was the National Championship. I use exciting loosely because all anyone ever shows is that Vince Young TD run and claims that VY had the best college performance in history. WRONG! If you watch any of the highlights from that game, USC just decided to stop tackling and let VY run where ever he wanted but that’s another story for another post.
Big Ten football is boring. I’ll say it again. Big Ten football is BORING!! Nobody outside the Big Ten likes it because it’s run run run and some option and some more running and some defense. Just because big Ten schools have been around for a thousand years and have all this tradition and whatever. I don’t really care. Put an exciting product on the field and I’ll watch. Why do you think the Big Ten Network is a running joke on Deadspin, Awful Announcing and other sports blogs? I might have to bring that hate here to JQP. We’ll see.
Secondly, do you know when it’s played? New Year’s Day. Know who’s watching football on New Year’s Day? NOBODY! Because everyone’s hungover as fuck after raging like hell the night before. Other than college students who are used to watching games hungover, nobody’s gonna wanna get up to watch it. With the emergence of the Winter Classic which is drawing huge ratings for the NHL. More people would watch that instead of a blowout in Pasadena, California.
Thirdly, because of contractual obligations. The Rose Bowl has been the reason there have been shared National Champions. The phrase “shared National Champions” should never be uttered in Sports anywhere, ever. Can you imagine any other sport doing that? “Yeah well your team went undefeated but you won’t play the number two team in the country because they HAVE to play in this other game and there’s no way around it.” It happened in 1991.
Dennis Erickson’s Miami Hurricanes were rolling through everyone in their path. They played Nebraska in the Orange Bowl that year and dominated them 22-0. The Canes would have played the University of Washington Huskies, who were Pac-10 Champions and also undefeated. They were locked in to the Rose Bowl and played the Michigan Wolverines. The Huskies also won and ended the season ranked number one in the Coaches’ Poll. The Canes were ranked number one in the AP poll. Thus giving us split National Champions. This is entirely the Rose Bowl’s fault for not giving the country a true National Champion.
It happened again six years later in 1997, Michigan and Nebraska were both undefeated heading into their bowl games. Nebraska was 13-0 after beating Texas A&M in the Big 12 Championship game. This meant a number one vs. number two for the title right? WRONG. Michigan was locked into the Rose Bowl and beat Washington State to finish number one in the AP Poll. Nebraska was dominant in their Orange Bowl win over Tennessee and finished number one in the Coaches’ poll. Again, you have two teams that are claiming one title. Unacceptable
Finally, the whole shared title thing I just discussed comes up every year when an undefeated Pac-10 team goes into the Rose Bowl, blows out their opponent and then starts clamoring for a share of the National Title. Here’s a thought: If you want to play for the National Title, tell the Rose Bowl committee to fuck off and play the number one team in the country. It’s not fucking rocket science people!
So this New Year’s Day, when you’re nursing your hangover and looking for something to watch on TV. Skip the Rose Bowl, nobody outside Pasadena cares about the parade and nobody on the East Coast cares about either of those teams. There are better New Year’s Day games to watch. That’s all.
Later kids!
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I am from the Big 10 and understand your frustrations.
But to take anything away from Vince Young is just idiocy. Don't you remember the hype USC got ALL MONTH LONG before that game? Texas wasn't given a chance, and he disproved everyone.
This year won't be as bad as year's past. At least it should feature a new matchup. OSU hasn't been there for a bit and owes it to the world to show up.
this would all make sense… if it were in any way accurate. the 2001 rose bowl, which featured purdue vs. washington AND the 2007 michigan vs. usc contest BOTH drew higher ratings than the 2002 national championship between nebraska and miami – which, to the best of my knowledge, are still teams outside of either the pac10 or the big10. nice try, though
you'll get 'em next time, slugger.
The Nebraska and Miami game was better than both of those two games anyway. TV ratings are an inaccurate science. If you look at the product on the field. The 2002 National Championship was better than those two games. I just got 'em chief
You stated in your blog post that "NOBODY" is watching football on New Year's Day and then pass off TV ratings as "an inaccurate science", which is pretty ridiculous reasoning. At least that's some concrete evidence of whether people "care" as opposed to a baseless hyperbolic opinion. Here are the TV ratings history of all of the bowl games this decade:
http://www.bcsfootball.org/bcsfb/tvratings
After the national championship game, the Rose Bowl has been by far the highest rated bowl game every… single… year. Without exception. When looking at the "boring" Big Ten, the only BCS games (outside of the national championship) that have garnered over a 10.0 rating since the conferences realigned in 2005 have ALL involved a Big Ten team (whether it was a Rose Bowl or not). Without exception.
By the way, that "running joke" of the Big Ten Network combined with the ABC/ESPN contract is providing the Big Ten with more TV revenue on a per school basis than every other conference, including the SEC, and nearly twice as much revenue as the vaunted Notre Dame NBC contract. I'm not sure what conference you're a fan of, but I can guarantee that the people running it would run over their own grandmothers to have a chance at the money that the Big Ten Network is raking in. While the SEC is close to the Big Ten, both of those conferences are completely smoking the Big 12, ACC and Pac-10 on this front while the Big East isn't even in the discussion. Please see a comparison by Sports Illustrated:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/ste…
So, if you're not a fan of the Rose Bowl or the Big Ten, that's fine. Different strokes for different folks. However, don't project that personal hatred (or envy) as some type of fact on the rest of the general public, who have voted with their TV viewing eyeballs and dollars that they actually care more about the Rose Bowl and Big Ten above everyone else when looking at the numbers.
fact over opinion, every time. the author's response – in addition to the unsubstantiated article – is a joke. i am quite literally dumbfounded by the whole thing. well done.