After moving up from its traditional 5 PM ET timeslot last year, the Rose Bowl could shift into primetime this season.
None of the three New Year’s Day College Football Playoff bowl games — the Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl and Cotton Bowl — will be assigned to a television window until Selection Sunday on December 6, it was announced Monday. Just as last year, there will be three New Year’s Day windows, Noon, 4 PM and 8 PM ET.
The Rose Bowl could air in the same 4 PM ET window it occupied last season or in a primetime 8 PM ET slot. Neither the Rose nor Fiesta Bowl will be able to air in the Noon ET window (or 9 AM local time) in any year of the new six-year CFP rights deal, Sports Media Watch has learned.
Should it remain in the 4 PM ET window, the Rose Bowl would air on ABC for the first time since 2010. The 8 PM window is set to air exclusively on ESPN.
The Rose Bowl for years occupied the 5 PM ET slot, but last year agreed to move up kickoff time an hour — a move that allowed the primetime bowl game to start at a more reasonable 8 PM (as opposed to 8:45). The last Rose Bowl to air in primetime was the 2006 National Championship.
While the 12-team format remains unchanged from the past two seasons, the CFP schedule will undergo significant change this year under the first year of a new media rights deal. TNT Sports’ sublicensing deal with ESPN was always set to expand this season to include a pair of quarterfinals, and ESPN evidently agreed to exercise a provision in the deal allowing TNT to carry a semifinal starting this season as well.
In addition to the Noon ET game on New Year’s Day, TNT Sports will carry the December 30 Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal and the January 14 Orange Bowl semifinal. Those games will air in primetime.
TNT Sports will also carry its usual CFP first round doubleheader on Saturday, December 19, with airing in 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM ET windows that will overlap with competing NFL contests — Seahawks-Eagles on FOX at 5 PM and Bears-Bills on CBS at 8 PM.
ESPN’s new rights deal reportedly includes a commitment to carry at least one game per round on ABC. This season, that includes the December 19 first round playoff game at Noon ET, the aforementioned 4 PM window on New Year’s Day, the January 15 Sugar Bowl semifinal and the January 25 National Championship.
With the additional games, ABC will not carry the Friday night first round playoff game that it had simulcast the past two seasons. That game and the primetime New Year’s Day slot will air exclusively on ESPN.
