On Wednesday, the news hit the wires: The venerable Tournament of Roses Parade, a staple of American culture and New Year’s Day entertainment, was canceled, marking the first time since 1945 the event won’t be held.
As we noted in the piece, the decision to cancel the parade might have seemed early to a lot of people, but it made complete sense. The floats’ building schedules were way behind. Arranging the flowers and assembling all the materials which go into the floats were interrupted by the pandemic. High school bands come to Southern California to participate in the parade, but in the middle of flu season, without a vaccine, that seems highly inadvisable. Moreover, crowds would not be likely to be allowed to attend the parade. If crowds can’t attend, what’s the point?
The parade isn’t the backbone of the college sports industry. One can play a college football game before the cameras to get TV money. The parade doesn’t carry that same importance, or the burden attached to it. Letting the parade go for one year made perfect sense.
It does, however, bring up the obvious question: What about the 2021 Rose Bowl Game?
We can clearly say that unlike the parade, the Rose Bowl Game is a source of considerable revenue for schools and conferences. There is a considerable need to play this game if at all possible. Obviously, January 1 would be the ideal date, but if college football either:
A) can’t finish a fall season after it starts;
or
B) never begins its fall season but tries to play in spring…
the sport could still play the Rose Bowl Game on a date other than January 1.
Remember: This season, the Rose is a College Football Playoff semifinal game, along with the Sugar Bowl. If the Rose Bowl Game is played this season, that will mean college football will have somehow played its regular season and moved into the postseason.
There are a lot of obstacles standing in the way of that lofty goal, but let’s entertain the possibility that college football can get there. It would be great if it happened.
The ideal scenario, as already mentioned, is for the game to be played on January 1. Yet, let’s say the sport wants to do that.
Would it actually make sense for Pasadena to host?
If USC is not in the Rose Bowl as the Pac-12 champion and a playoff semifinalist — we would all agree that the Trojans are highly unlikely to do that well this season, if we even play college football in the fall — the two teams in the 2021 Rose Bowl would be from out of state.
The thought arises: Why have two teams flying to Los Angeles to play this game? This is similar to the idea of USC and Alabama flying into Texas to play on Sept. 5, a game which has now been canceled.
Wouldn’t it be a LOT easier for the 2021 Rose Bowl to be played on the campus of the higher-seeded team?
This means one plane flight instead of two. This means one team can much more easily organize itself and get proper testing and contact tracing before the game. It would reduce the amount of logistical complications.
The same policies would apply to the Sugar Bowl, the other playoff semifinal.
Once again, we live in anything-but-normal times. These situations do not call for “normal” responses.
No USC-Notre Dame for the first time since World War II.
No Tournament of Roses Parade for the first time since World War II.
This battle against a pandemic feels like a war in certain ways.
The Rose Bowl Game being moved from the Arroyo Seco? It sounds like sacrilege… until you remember that in a pandemic, drastic measures might be needed.