Rose Bowl’s 2:10 p.m. start time is gone as college football continues to trample on its cherished traditions
In today’s world of college football, it feels like everything is rapidly changing. Between playoff expansion, bowl game opt outs, mass transfers, pay-for-play masquerading as NIL, and now even de facto trades, the sport looks completely different than it did even half a decade ago.
Throughout all of the changes, however, one thing about college football has remained constant: The Rose Bowl has always kicked off just after 2 p.m. Pacific time on New Year’s Day. However, even that is now changing. Earlier this week, the College Football Playoff announced that next year’s quarterfinal game at the Rose Bowl will be moved up by an hour to kick off just after 1 p.m. instead.
The Rose Bowl’s start time has always created the perfect spectacle. Watching the game, viewers get to see California sunshine during the first half, the sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains during the third and fourth quarters, and the often thrilling finish being played under the lights. Having witnessed this both in-person and on television, there really is nothing like it in all of sports.
By moving the game up an hour, the CFP strips the Rose Bowl of much of the aura behind it. Instead of witnessing the sunset during the second half of the game, viewers will only get to see a portion of it at the very end. Instead of the most unique spectacle in all of sports, it will essentially just be another afternoon game in Southern California—something of which there are already plenty.
The reasoning for moving the game up an hour makes sense: They want to be able to play the quarterfinal game at the Sugar Bowl afterward and not have it kick off at 9 p.m. Eastern time. But there are plenty of other ways they could have adjusted for this…
Source link : https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2025/04/24/rose-bowl-start-time-college-football-tradition/83245045007/
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Publish date : 2025-04-24 15:59:00
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