Q&A with Rose Bowl’s Laura Farber on 12-team CFP expansion agreement

Laura Farber has been involved with some of the interworkings of the Rose Bowl Game and the lead-up to its agreement that led to the official announcement for the start of a 12-team College Football Playoff to conclude the 2024-25 season.

Farber is currently the chair of the Rose Bowl Management Committee and was the 2019-20 Tournament of Roses Association President.

On Wednesday, the Rose Bowl Game was the last of the six major bowl games to agree on CFP expansion after trying to work on a compromise that would allow it to keep its contractual obligations and traditions intact.

Before the playoff officially expands, the Rose Bowl will serve as a semifinal game along with the Sugar Bowl for the 2023-24 season.

The Rose Bowl had served as a CFP semifinal game in 2018 and 2021, with the latter being played in Arlington, Texas, because the City of Pasadena was unable to receive an exception from California to allow fans to attend during the pandemic-shortened season.

The Peach Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl will serve as semifinal games on New Year’s Eve.

Below are Farber’s comments during an interview Thursday with the Southern California News Group:

Q: How is the Rose Bowl as a collective feeling about the results of what came out of the agreement?

A: We are extremely pleased to have come to an agreement with the CFP board of managers on early CFP expansion and we are happy that the Rose Bowl will be a part of the college football postseason. That’s all really positive from our perspective.

Q: What were some of the things the Rose Bowl was looking for before coming to the agreement with the CFP?

A: In our negations, we initially asked for an exclusive window around the Rose Bowl Game’s historic time slot. While we relinquished that ask, the Tournament of Roses is going to continue to work with the CFP board of managers on how we will fit into the playoffs rotation. It is our intent to keep the Rose Bowl on Jan.1, but we will remain flexible with scheduling as needed. The agreement was an important step to allow for the early adoption of the playoff expansion, but there are still more steps that have to be taken as the structure of the expanded playoffs is finalized. We look forward to being part of that process. It’s premature to say what the schedule of the expanded playoff will look like – that’s the information we do not have – but it’s our intent to keep the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, but we will remain flexible as needed. There’s almost some back and forth. We are the only bowl game with a separate broadcast contract. It wasn’t the smoothest process, but as we’ve said from the start, we have always been supportive of the playoff and there was no intention of keeping early expansion of the playoff from happening.

Q: What are the expectations for the next two years?

A: This is just the beginning of the process and we don’t know how this is all going to play out. We expect the Rose Bowl to be hosting quarterfinals in 2025 and 2026 in place of the traditional (Pac-12 vs. Big Ten) bowl games.

Q: How important is tradition to the Rose Bowl – the oldest active bowl game in college football?

A: Historically, the Rose Bowl is held on Jan. 1 and it has been held on Jan. 2 like it will be for this upcoming game because the first falls on a Sunday.

In 2002 and 2006, the Rose Bowl was held on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, respectively, as part of the BCS National Championship system. Both of those games were wildly successful, so when you think about a tradition you have to look at the full complement of what is tradition.

Tradition has been very important, but we have been there for ‘the Alliance,’ from the BCS to the CFP’s four-team playoff to now the upcoming 12-team playoff. The Rose Bowl Game has found ways to integrate the Granddaddy of Them All, our tradition, into the ever-evolving postseason models. We are confident that an expanded playoff will create an exciting postseason atmosphere and we are very supportive of the college football playoff.

Q: What is the selection process for the teams during a traditional year when you have a team like USC out of the Pac-12 potentially in as one of four CFP teams?

A: Should a team from the Pac-12 or Big Ten be selected to play in the CFP, the Tournament of Roses will traditionally select the next CFP-ranked team from that conference. However, if the next highest-ranked team is in a cluster of teams, with another team or teams from the same conference within several spots of each other, the Tournament of Roses will select a team from that cluster that will result in the best possible matchup for the Rose Bowl Game.

So in a cluster situation, the Tournament of Roses will take in factors such as multiple appearances in recent Rose Bowl Games, head-to-head results, regular-season schedule, overall record, opponents played, past playoff or bowl experiences and performance and historic matchups. So the selection decision will be a decision made by the Tournament of Roses in conjunction with our conference partners at the Big Ten and Pac-12. We don’t make that decision in a vacuum. We will wait to see what happens this weekend (with the conference title games) because we don’t know what is going to happen. There are a lot of different scenarios, but that’s the process and that’s how we expect it to work.