There’s no entity in college sports that mixes unbridled arrogance with a lack of self-awareness more consistently and persistently than the Rose Bowl. For decades, the Rose Bowl’s addiction to tradition has proudly impeded the progress of the sport’s postseason by blocking a playoff.
In most corners of the sports world, a parade and a sunset packaged with a bowl game slowing the entire enterprise’s progress would be mocked. In college football, it provided a point of pride.
The Rose Bowl is accustomed to getting in the way and not realizing it, long comfortable with a smokescreen of tradition providing cover for its greed and collective ego.