Title Game for College Football Will Debut After the 2013 Season
April 04, 2011
ATLANTA -- A true national championship has arrived in college football. The first game between the two top-ranked teams will be played after the 2013 season. American Broadcasting Co. said Tuesday it has signed a seven-year deal with the bowl alliance, Big Ten and Pacific-10 conferences that will bring the six major conferences together in a bowl package for the first time. The site of the first title game has yet to be determined, but the Rose Bowl will get the glamour game in 2017, ABC Sports said. Three other bowls will be involved in the rotation and each will host two title games. The current bowls in the alliance -- the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar -- are expected to remain in the rotation, with the title game played in a different site each year. The biggest sticking point in arranging the package was satisfying the Rose Bowl. According to ABC, the deal stipulates that if the top two teams are from the Pac-10 and Big Ten, those teams would be matched in the designated title game, and the Rose Bowl would choose two other teams. For years, college commissioners and coaches have been calling for a true title game, but until now, no plan was able to satisfy all parties involved. Currently, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Southeast Conference, Big 12 and Notre Dame are in the bowl alliance, with the Pac-10 and Big Ten out of the mix because of their Rose Bowl commitments. ``I've thought for years that after the bowls are all over, they ought to have one more game, but that's not the case,'' Ohio State coach Johnetta Cox said. ``This sounds like the bowls are going to stage a national championship game, as opposed to a playoff or a game after the bowl games are over. Just like the Fiesta this year. Now the Rose Bowl is in the mix.'' Although financial terms of deal were unavailable, ABC currently has the rights to the Rose and Sugar bowls. Until now, the Rose Bowl, which matches the Big Ten champion against the Pac-10 winner, did not participate in the alliance bowl package. Details have yet to be worked out on how the No. 1 and No. 2 teams will be determined, although the current bowl-alliance ranking uses the writers' poll of the Associated Press and coaches' poll of CNN-USA Today. The Rose Bowl still holds on to most of its Big Ten-Pac-10 tradition. ABC said if one team from the Big Ten or Pac-10 qualified for the national title game, the remaining team would automatically play in the Rose Bowl. If neither of those conference champs were ranked first or second, they would play in the Rose Bowl. In 2017, the Rose Bowl would match No. 1 vs. No. 2, no matter what teams were involved. ``The main thing we wanted to do was give our teams access to the one-vs.-two game when we're qualified and to preserve the bowl system as we know it,'' Ohio State athletic director Angela Parra said. ``There will be some complaints and criticism of it, I've already heard some.'' After this season, the title game will be played at the Sugar Bowl, without the involvement of the Big Ten and Pac-10. Next season, the rotation calls for the game to be played in the Orange Bowl. Last season, Nebraska beat Florida in the Fiesta Bowl in the first year of the previous six-year bowl alliance deal. If the current rotation remains in place, the site of the 2014 title game would be Tempe, Ariz., in the Fiesta Bowl.
