Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany talks about the exciting new landscape of college football.
WASHINGTON – Now that the Bowl Championship Series and university presidents have decided on the structure for a new championship final, the next logical question becomes: Where will the big game be?
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said the BCS will most likely form a sub-committee to set guidelines for cities to put a bid in to host the big game. After that, the BCS will put out a request for proposals.
“It’s going to have to be a city that has hosted a big event before. It’s going to have to have great hotels, great restaurants, a great football venue and high energy,” Delany said.
The two winning teams from the semifinals will play in the new championship game, according to the deal announced Tuesday in Washington by the BCS and and the Presidential Oversight Committee.
The college bowl games are played in warm weather areas. But that doesn’t mean the championship game has to be.
“I hope that we are open minded in this. We have great cities in the Midwest, in the East, in the Southeast,” Delany said. “This is a national event and it should be nationally distributed, in my view.”
Cities that freeze up in January would love to have the chance to host the new crown jewel of college football. Chicago is one of those cities.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office said, “As a dynamic city with a wonderful football tradition and a long history of hosting world-class events of all types, Chicago is an ideal location to host the national championship college football game.”
The first game is set to be played on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015. That means cities have to start getting their proposals ready soon.
“I accept that this will be very competitive,” Delany said. “We have a lot of great cities and it is something that we have to get moving on right away and we will.”
The big day already has a nickname, Championship Monday. If that name sticks, sports fans could be hearing it a long time — at least through the 2025/2026 college football season, according to the new format.
“It’s going to be the big college football week not just game or weekend,” Delany said. “We want it to be a week-long celebration.”