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College Football

College football owns New Years

Brett Weisband

By Brett Weisband

Published:

The NFL has Thanksgiving. The NBA owns Christmas. Baseball runs the summer holidays. Just like some of the country’s major sporting pastimes have a day or days that they make their own, college football has one too: New Year’s.

More than ever, this year’s slate of New Year’s Eve and Day bowl games establish the hold the college football world has over the turning of the calendar. As the country begins its reveling and nurses its hangover, college football puts its very best on the field.

The College Football Playoff established the formal New Year’s Six bowls, the former BCS games now decided by the selection committee’s rankings. The Orange, Cotton, Peach, Fiesta, Rose and Sugar Bowls pit highly ranked teams against one another, with a trip to the new CFP National Championship Game at stake in each of the latter two. Even better, they’re all coming within a 48-hour period on December 31 and January 1.

On top of that, there are two other prominent bowl games between ranked teams, both involving the SEC. While the Outback and Citrus Bowls don’t have the same luster as the New Year’s Six, their Florida location and prime kickoff times make them nearly as attractive.

The New Year’s tradition runs deep in college football, and it dates back to one game in particular: “the Granddaddy of Them All.” Since its inception, the Rose Bowl, college football’s oldest postseason game, has traditionally been played on Jan. 1.

Going back to its earliest days, the Rose Bowl gave fans a rare chance to watch the best teams from the East battle teams out West. Frequent participants like Southern California and Michigan are the traditional powers they are in part because of their strong ties to the sport’s oldest showcase.

So it’s only fitting that this year’s Rose Bowl is the site of the first College Football Playoff game between Oregon and Florida State. The oldest annual college football celebration ushers in the newest tradition, pitting two polarizing teams against each other in front of the nation.

The Sugar Bowl, host of the other CFP semifinal, was traditionally a New Year’s game as well until recent years, when it was more often played in the first few days of January. For the game’s first 60 years, it was played almost exclusively on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.

With a new playoff format for this season, the selection committee made the decision to claim New Year’s for the NCAA. Gone are the days of the Liberty and Gator Bowl competing for air time with the sport’s high-profile matchups. Instead, we get just eight games split over the two days, with the only two non-New Year’s Six games both being played between high-profile ranked opponents.

The games should have the eye of the country upon them. There’s no bowl riffraff to distract the viewing public from watching the very best teams that bowl season has to offer. The 48-hour period when the calendar turns may be known for its champagne and sparklers, but college football comes in as a close second for the story of the day.

Brett Weisband

A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.

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