College football: Pasadena gives up little, gains a lot under plan to share in true title-clinching game.

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s announcement that college football will have, beginning after the 1998 season, a national championship game, the most difficult task was finding anyone opposed to the idea.

Enthusiasm seemed to run high Tuesday in the Pacific 10 Conference, most of the the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl staff, which now apparently will have the national championship game once every four years.

USC Coach John Robinson was delighted.

“It sounds good to me,” said Robinson, in a written statement.

“I hope we get to play in it. . . . I’m a big fan of the Rose Bowl, but I’m also a big fan of finding a way to crown a true national champion.”

The Pac-10/Big Ten exclusive Rose Bowl arrangement, in place since 1946, was the last hurdle cleared in reaching agreement on a championship game, ABC and other officials said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, the national championship game will be played in the Rose Bowl every fourth year, in rotation with three other bowls, which have not been named.

The Rose Bowl will have the national championship game no later than 2002, and as early as 1999 if a Pac-10 or Big Ten team is ranked No. 1 at the end of the regular season. In years the Rose Bowl is scheduled to be the national title game, the only way a Pac-10 or Big Ten team will play is if it is ranked 1 or 2.

In its nontitle years, the Rose Bowl will continue to feature the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions, unless one of those champions is involved in the national championship game. In that case, the Rose Bowl would select another team from the bowl alliance.

“We are pleased that this [a national title game] has been achieved with limited disruption of the conference’s historic relationship with the Rose Bowl game,” Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said in a prepared statement.

Northwestern athletic director Rick Taylor said:

“If the Big Ten or Pac-10 is displaced from the Rose Bowl in a year when they won conference championships, we’ll all just have to learn to live with it. But really, getting No. 1 vs. No. 2 instead isn’t too bad.

“This has been a very hot, very behind-the-scenes project for the last 18 months.

“Overall, I think it’s a positive, with minimal downside and tremendous upside. It preserves the integrity of the bowl system and still provides what everyone seems to want--No. 1 vs. No. 2.”

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said Michigan Athletic Director Joe Roberson was the last Big Ten figure to sign on with the concept.

“Joe held out a long time. . . . He just felt that we were taking a first step that would lead to a long playoff system, which he was adamantly opposed to,” Delany said.

Roberson was unavailable for comment.

Harriman Cronk, Rose Bowl football committee chairman, said one Pac-10 or Big Ten official had concerns and told him:

“ ‘If we win the conference one year, after years of trying, and that becomes a year when we can’t play in the Rose Bowl, we’ll get scalped [by our fans] for ever agreeing to this.’ ”

Cronk said Rose Bowl staffers agreed that occasionally losing the traditional Pac-10/Big Ten matchup to a national championship game was an acceptable concession.

“Imagine, for example, Notre Dame and Alabama finishing one-two, and that’s the game we get,” he said.

“Imagine what a tough ticket that would be in Southern California.”

The new format would also, officials said, increase the Rose Bowl’s payout--$8.16 million for the last Rose Bowl game to each of the two conferences. The new payout is expected to be more than $10 million per conference.

Said Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland: “We’re really excited about what this new agreement does for the Pac-10 and college football. We hope to take full advantage of this situation in the near future.”

Jim Muldoon, Pac-10 assistant commissioner, said conference presidents unanimously approved of the new format at a June meeting in Portland, Ore.

“What we give up in the years when our champions don’t play in the Rose Bowl is that in return we get No. 1 playing No. 2.” he said.

“We feel that’s a good tradeout.”

Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti sees a downside to the new format, but a huge upside.

“I’m a West Coast guy, so I’ve always thought of the Rose Bowl as our private reserve, or our backyard,” he said.

“Now, with the possibility of winning the Pac-10 and then having to play . . . somewhere else, that’s a shame.

“But I’ve also believed we need a national championship game, without a long playoff, and this gives us one. And there’s a big plus here recruiting-wise for the Pac-10. Now, other schools can’t tell kids that the Pac-10 schools are shut out of a national championship game.”

USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis and UCLA Coach Bob Toledo were on vacation and unavailable.

Last season, in a conversation about ways to create a national championship game, USC’s Robinson said he preferred something akin to what was announced Tuesday.

“I don’t want a monthlong playoff, because the season’s long enough now,” he said.

“And you can’t ask your fans to make long trips with you on short notice,” he said.

“I’d prefer a bunch of gurus go into a room, come out and announce who the two best teams are, and let them play.”

And what about years in which a third or even a fourth team have legitimate claims to No. 1 or 2?

“That’s too bad,” Robinson said.

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Bowling for Dollars

Payouts for each of the 18 college football bowl games following the 1995 season, with money generated by Pacific 10 and Big Ten teams:

BOWL PAYOUTS

Fiesta: $8.58 million

Orange: $8.33 million

Sugar: $8.33 million

Rose: $8.1 million

Citrus: $3 million

Cotton: $2.5 million

Outback: $1.5 million

Holiday: $1.5 million

Gator: $1.3 million

Peach: $1.13 million

Carquest: $1 million

Alamo: $1 million

Sun: $900,000

Aloha: $800,000

Liberty: $750,000

Independence: $750,000

Copper: $750,000

Las Vegas: $175,000

PACIFIC 10 (5 bowls, $13.1 million)

*--*

School Bowl Expenses Share Total USC Rose $902,000 $896,550 $1,798,550 UCLA Rose $750,000* $896,550 $1,646,550 Oregon Cotton $750,000** $896,550 $1,646,550 Washington Sun $750,000* $896,550 $1,646,550 Stanford Liberty $750,000* $896,550 $1,646,550 All others $896,550 $896,550

*--*

* Plus 150 round-trip air fares, est. $400 each

** Plus 325 round-trip air fares, est. $400 each

(Note: Bowl money after expenses is divided 10 ways)

BIG TEN (6 bowls, $15.35 million)

*--*

School Bowl Expenses Share Total Northwestern Rose $1.1 million $770,833 $1,870,833 Other Bowl teams $1 million $770,833 $1,770,833 (Michigan, Iowa Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State) All others $-- $770,833 $770,833

*--*

(Note: Bowl money after expenses is divided 12 ways, the conference taking one share)