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From: ekblaw@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.sport.football
Subject: Re: The Rose Bowl(Grandaddy of them all
Message-ID: <13000057@uiucdcs>
Date: Mon, 11-Nov-85 11:34:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.13000057
Posted: Mon Nov 11 11:34:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Nov-85 07:26:10 EST
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Nf-From: uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU!ekblaw    Nov 11 10:34:00 1985


From what I understand, the Rose Bowl PAC 10 v. Big 10 matchup is more traditionthan anything else.  Besides, it is doubtable that it determine the #1 in the
next few years anyway, since no PAC 10 team makes it that high in the national
rankings anymore.  The Rose Bowl is committed to having a PAC 10 play there,
just like the Cotton Bowl has a Southwestern Conference team.  The Rose Bowl,
in an effort to get the best team, takes the PAC 10 champion.  Why always play
against the Big 10 Champ?  As I said, tradition.  For nearly all of the Rose
Bowl games (dating back to 1902), it has been the PAC 10/Big 10 matchup.
Tradition IS very hard to break, after all.

By the way, it is called the granddaddy not for its prestige (though I hope
it still has some) but for its age.  It is the oldest annual college bowl game
still being played, as this season's will mark its 72nd consecutive year (it
has skipped a few since 1902).  That is 20 years (exactly!) more than its
nearest competitors (Sugar Bowl is one, I think te Orange or Cotton is the
other at 52 this year.  I forgot which one).  Being the oldest, it earned its
mark of distinction (of age?).  With all the new and recent bowl additions, 
though, it may be more than two generations old.  Should we start calling it
the great-granddaddy, and give the granddaddy title to the 52-year old bowls?

Robert A. Ekblaw