Rose Bowl Game Rout Draws Record Playoff Audience, as Calls for Permanent Championship Game in Pasadena Continue

Indiana’s emphatic Rose Bowl victory over Alabama delivered the largest television audience of the expanded College Football Playoff era.

Indiana’s 38–3 win over the Crimson Tide averaged 22.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched game of the 12-team playoff era. It was the first-ever meeting between the programs and the most lopsided Rose Bowl result involving Alabama.

Last year’s national championship averaged 22.1 million average viewers.

The audience tuned in as Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza led the Hoosiers with precision, while Indiana’s defense limited Alabama to one of its least productive bowl performances in program history.

The loss ended Alabama’s season and marked Indiana’s arrival on college football’s biggest postseason stage.

While the figure fell short of the sport’s all-time viewership peak — the 2006 BCS National Championship between USC and Texas, which drew 35.6 million viewers — the Rose Bowl audience stood out as a milestone for the newly expanded playoff format. That game, decided by Vince Young’s late heroics, remains college football’s most-watched contest.

The ratings success comes as some commentators and columnists continue to call on CFP to make the Rose Bowl the permanent site of the national championship game, rather than a rotating playoff venue.

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt has argued that the sport lacks a single, aspirational destination and that the Rose Bowl uniquely fills that role.

“This should be the national championship every single year,” Klatt said in commentary on the Rose Bowl’s place in the modern postseason.

Syndicated columnist Jim Alexander echoed that sentiment, writing that the venue’s reduced role under the expanded playoff system undersells its significance.

“The Rose Bowl should be hosting college football’s national championship game every year,” Alexander wrote, arguing that the sport has drifted away from its most recognizable stage.

Although the National Championship is scheduled for Jan. 19 this year, moving the game to the Rose Bowl every year does not necessarily mean the game could not be held on Jan. 1.

Several coaches are calling for the season to end with the National Championship Game to be played on Jan. 1.

If the format is changed to accommodate that schedule, the Rose Bowl would make sense considering the hoopla and pageantry surrounding the city during the holidays.

The debate comes at a pivotal moment for the Rose Bowl and its broadcast future.

The game is currently part of ESPN’s College Football Playoff media package, but the network’s long-term rights agreements with the CFP and its affiliated bowls are set to be revisited as the current cycle approaches its conclusion later this decade.

Future postseason formats and media negotiations are expected to determine whether the Rose Bowl remains a rotating playoff site or assumes a different role.