Plaschke: College football needs to stop diminishing the national treasure that is the Rose Bowl
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Two unbeatens owned Pasadena Thursday, two unbeatens who transformed a dreary morning into a startling afternoon, two unbeatens who overcame questions to shine like the poke of the midday sun.
Indiana and Grandaddy.
First, the Hoosiers, who improved to 14-0 and bolstered the growing belief that they are the best college football team in the country after a 38-3 beatdown of Alabama in the Rose Bowl’s CFP quarterfinal game.
Second, the Rose Bowl itself, the “Grandaddy of Them All” improving to 112-0, again proving immune to bad weather and misguided criticism while putting on college football’s most majestic show.
The rain that had soaked the morning Rose Parade stopped before the game. Early in the second quarter, the sun creeped out. A postponed pregame flyover eventually joined the party, a single jet buzzing the cheering crowd at the start of the third quarter. Finally, early in the fourth quarter the San Gabriel Mountains made their annual breathtaking appearance, barging through the clouds like the Hoosiers rolling over the Tide.
Read more:No. 1 Indiana crushes No. 9 Alabama in Rose Bowl to advance to playoff semifinals
Afterward, having earned their first Rose Bowl victory 58 years after their only other appearance, the Hoosiers stuck roses between their teeth and gave coach Curt Cignetti a Gatorade bath of roses.
“Make a helluva movie,” said Cignetti.
Truly, on a day that began so dark, there wound up being a familiar glow cast on the Rose Bowl winners and their unparalleled surroundings.
The difference between the unbeatens is that while the college football world’s decision-makers finally respect Indiana, they increasingly don’t appreciate Grandaddy.
The Rose Bowl needs to be college football’s national championship game. Every Jan. 1. Always at 2 p.m. Now and forever.
This is not a new thought. The cries for this change could be heard from national college football pundits in recent weeks as the playoffs have made a mess of everything else.
Conference championship games? They’ve been rendered meaningless.
The other major bowl games? They’ve lost their identity, it being difficult to tell which CFP game is the Cotton Bowl, which one is the Orange Bowl, and which one is the Bluebonnet Bowl (Wait a minute. Is there still a Bluebonnet Bowl?)
The only bowl game that still carries any weight is the Rose Bowl, which may have just unofficially crowned a national champion for the second consecutive year. Last season the CFP quarterfinals here were dominated by eventual champ Ohio State. On Thursday the Rose Bowl was absolutely overrun by Indiana — and its fans — in a setting that was the perfect marriage of team and stadium.
The Rose Bowl is Augusta National. It is Churchill Downs. It is the Indianapolis Speedway. It is the tentpole that carries the sport’s postseason and thus deserves the sport’s final game.
This is currently an issue because, on Jan. 23, everything in the Rose Bowl’s ever-changing world could change again. That’s the deadline that ESPN has given the College Football Playoff management committee to decide on how many playoff games will be played next season.
There is a strong possibility the 12-team field will expand to 16, with the potential for 24 teams in 2027, all of which possibly pushes the Rose Bowl further into the background.
With this many playoff games, the college football postseason could begin a month earlier, with more games played on campuses and late-round games being played in late December and what happens to the Rose Bowl then?
If it’s a quarterfinal or semifinal game, will they want it played a week before Jan. 1? Or maybe a week after Jan. 1? Do CFP officials want it to be just another midweek night game to avoid conflict with the NFL? Is it reduced to yet another fill-in-the-blank preliminary to a national title game in some super-duper-they-look-alike stadium?
The possibility of the Rose Bowl being severely diminished is real, because it’s already happening.
Did you hear the trash talk from Cignetti this week? He unloaded when he asked about competing in a playoff game amid all the Rose Bowl’s wonderful distractions.
“Let's face it, this is a playoff game, it's a football game, right?” said Cignetti. “And I think both teams would like to be able to kind of go through their routine and process like they do for every football game and not have this disruption.”
The Rose Bowl has been downgraded from college football’s most venerable game to a disruption? A disruption? Cignetti went so far as to say the Rose Bowl is nothing more than a name.
“The Rose Bowl has a lot of tradition … but this is a playoff game,” he said. “We're playing at the Rose Bowl. We played UCLA last year at the Rose Bowl … we're getting ready to play a playoff game.”
But the players know this is different, just listen to Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.
“The Rose Bowl is a magical place,” he said, adding, “I know a lot of people online say the national championship should be played at the Rose Bowl because it's a special event. I think that just speaks volumes on what a great venue this is and what a special game this is. I think the Rose Bowl is the epitome of college football.”
On Thursday, Indiana was the epitome of college football in a win so overwhelming, a Mendoza finished the game at quarterback and it wasn’t Fernando, it was his bench-sitting brother, Alberto.
"I'm very confident the way the team is playing,” said Fernando afterward. “It's not just myself, I think our entire team and our coaching staff really enjoy football, and I think that's why we work so hard at it … because not only do we enjoy football, we also enjoy winning. And we know what that takes.”
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And they have what it takes. The Hoosiers gained more than twice as many yards and had one fewer first down than the Tide had yards rushing. They were unsurprisingly led by Mendoza, who had more touchdown passes than he had incompletions, going 14 of 16 with three scores and no interceptions.
This game was over early in the second quarter when Alabama, trailing 3-0, foolishly attempted to convert a fourth and one from their 34-yard line. A short pass to Germie Bernard was stuffed, and the Hoosiers and their Heisman quarterback were given the gift of a short field.
Less than two minutes later, Mendoza hit a leaping Charlie Becker on a perfectly bulleted pass to the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown and an eventual 10-0 lead.
Alabama had poked the bear, and paid dearly, and they continued to suffer late into the second quarter when a booming hit led to a Ty Simpson fumble around midfield, giving Indiana another break.
Can you tell the Hoosiers don’t need many breaks? This one they drove 58 yards in 11 plays on a push that ended with a one-yard touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. to end the half with an already-insurmountable 17-0 lead.
How deep is Indiana? Remember how Cooper made the catch of the year in the back of the end zone to beat Penn State and cement Mendoza’s Heisman? The touchdown catch by Cooper on Thursday was the first time he had even been targeted in the game.
So many skill players. So many ways to beat you. Six different Hoosiers caught passes. Five different Hoosiers scored touchdowns. Four different Hoosiers rushed for double-digit yards.
All this, and the offensive MVP was the anonymous center, Pat Coogan, who was swarmed by leaping teammates when it was announced he won the award.
“A credit to all my teammates,” he said. “These guys are unbelievable.”
They will have to continue to be unbelievable when they play surging Oregon in the CFP semifinals next Friday in the … what bowl was that again? They’re all the same except that one that just painted another marvelous Pasadena January afternoon.
Grandaddy, unbeaten and untied and still heavyweight champion of the college football world.
Here’s hoping he can be saved.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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