College Football: ESPN's Rose Bowl Deal Is a Great Sign for the Champions Bowl

Yesterday, two of the best business reporters in the college football world, Michael Smith and John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, broke a report that ESPN was getting ready to pay $80 million a year for the rights to broadcast the Rose Bowl. That's a huge number for the network, an increase of 167% on the existing $30 million number the cable sports giant pays. 

While the details for the entire playoff package and how the branded bowls; Champions, Rose and Orange Bowl, all fit in are being hashed out, one thing is for certain: The Champions Bowl is about to make some big bucks. 

We've already hit on the beauty of the Champions Bowl as a money-making entity and something that the Big 12 and SEC can sell for many years to come. Now, with the last few weeks of events; the Orange Bowl allowing the ACC to shop the game's rights and this big move by the Rose Bowl, the Champions Bowl is looking better than ever. 

While the Champions Bowl does not have the same name cache and pageantry that the Rose Bowl reminds us about more often then we'd like, the game does feature a slew of schools that "sell." So while the Rose Bowl was selling the "Rose Bowl" as an entity and a value to the folks at Disney/ABC/ESPN, the Champions Bowl is no frills all heavy lifting. They are going into negotiations selling football. Not selling a parade. Not selling the ambiguous ideal of tradition.

Actually to be honest that's not entirely true. The Champions Bowl is selling tradition. Just not the dusty ideal that the Rose Bowl peddles. Rather, the Champions Bowl, is selling the SEC's stranglehold on the BCS Championship. The Big 12's offense versus the SEC's defense. The intense football culture of the Southeast versus the equally big football cultures of the states of Texas, Oklahoma and now West Virginia. 

The beauty of it all is that while the Rose Bowl and ESPN/ABC have had a relationship for quite some time, the Champions Bowl is a new venture that will be open to looking for the best deal possible. Whether the game is housed in Dallas or New Orleans, the goal for both leagues will remain the same; get that money. The SEC, a conference partnered with ESPN and CBS has two big dogs looking to court them. The Big 12, who works with ESPN, also has another dance partner in Fox.

Both Fox and CBS are looking to grab a hold of the college football pie so expect the bidding to get interesting. CBS could belly up to the table and fight to keep their rights to the SEC, they already own the first tier and SEC Championship game. Meanwhile, Fox just grabbed Erin Andrews to build a studio show around, and the Champions Bowl would be a solid play to make their New Years Day splash.

The money is going to get interesting for the Champions Bowl because both the SEC and Big 12 are both looking to expand their revenue, more than stay tied to a network. Someone is going to pay a lot of cash and both leagues are going to walk away winners.