Why the Rose Bowl should be the permanent national championship game

It was already disrespectful when the Rose Bowl, "The Granddaddy of Them All," was relegated to a semifinal in the four-team format announced in 2014. Now, its historic role as the college football kingmaker has been diminished even further.

First played in 1902 and annually since 1916 — making it the oldest major bowl game — the Rose Bowl has crowned 14 recognized national champions.

It deserves to be the permanent national championship game, and only corporate greed stands in its way.

The Rose Bowl stadium can seat over 96,000 people and has sold out every game since 1947. Comparatively, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where the national championship game will be held in 2025, has a record attendance of just over 79,000 people for the 2022 Peach Bowl.

The venue seems to draw superior television viewership, too. Last season, the Rose Bowl semifinal game garnered 27.7 million viewers, a top-10 telecast in cable history. The national championship in Houston, comparatively, fell short at 25 million, according to ESPN.

Commercially, the Rose Bowl has the superior bang for its buc. And while the stadium itself is in Pasadena, the city of Los Angeles and the campuses of UCLA and USC can more than handle the duties of a host city.

It's understandable for some to claim a Rose Bowl monopoly is uncompetitive for other U.S. cities vying to host. But there's certainly no significant economic harm when the current rotation of Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta and others are already near perennial Super Bowl and Final Four hosts.

Arguably only the Orange Bowl can compete with the Rose Bowl's legacy in college football. Still, "America's Stadium" is the only clear destination to coronate a national champion.