A tradition unlike any other

Forget the controversy, just enjoy the Granddaddy's return to glory

Even if he thinks the BCS is Mickey Mouse, Pete Carroll and the Trojans can win a share of the title with a Rose Bowl win. AP

LOS ANGELES -- At about 5 p.m. EST New Year's Day, one of college football's greatest traditions makes its return from a three-year hiatus when Big Ten champion Michigan and Pac-10 champion USC reclaim the Rose Bowl.

As always, the forecast, is for clear skies and sunshine, providing a perfect view of the San Gabriel Mountains surrounding the stadium, and as always, the teams' colors will glisten from the freshly painted end zones.

For anyone with even an ounce of attachment to the two conferences, it will be like a little slice of heaven.

"We love playing in the Rose Bowl," said Pete Carroll, head coach of the top-ranked Trojans. "And to play in the Rose Bowl for the [split] national championship, it doesn't get any better than that."

Or does it?

Judging by the firestorm of controversy that's enveloped the sport in the weeks since USC -- No. 1 in both the AP and coaches polls -- failed to garner an invitation to the BCS' official championship game, it's clear that for an increasing number of people, preserving tradition is no longer as high a priority as rectifying college football's flawed mechanism for determining a national champion.

As exciting as it is for USC to be playing in its own city at its traditional bowl site, and as much as Carroll continues to put a positive spin on the situation, there's no denying the fact the Trojans and their faithful would rather be playing in the Sugar Bowl, or at least have an opportunity, if they were to beat Michigan, to face the Oklahoma-LSU winner to determine an undisputed national champion.

"After a long, hard season of work, no one wants to share a title," said USC defensive end Kenechi Udeze. "As a player, I would like to see a playoff system."

Such is the dilemma facing a select group of university presidents and conference commissioners who in 2004 will determine what course college football's postseason structure takes following the end of the current BCS contract in 2006. How do you devise a system that both appeases the public's demand for a more definitive championship process while still maintaining something as sacred to so many people as the Rose Bowl?

"My major hope is we can return the bowl tradition to the Rose Bowl with a Big Ten-Pac-10 matchup, the SEC champion goes to the Sugar Bowl, etc.," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "However, I do think at some point in time we're going to have another game after the major bowls. We're never going to go back to whence we came."

Such a game -- believed to have been under discussion in some circles even before USC's situation transpired -- would seem to be the most logical proposal, especially considering BCS officials have repeatedly expressed their opposition to a full-blown playoff system. But even that alternative raises a bevy of questions.

With the possibility of an extra game looming a week or two later, would a team like Michigan still be able to arrive here early enough to partake in the many festivities -- the Lawry's beef bowl, Disneyland visits, Leno tapings -- that accompany major bowl games? Would their fans, tens of thousands of whom have descended on Los Angeles this week, be able to afford multiple postseason journeys?

And most importantly, can the players themselves handle a longer season both physically and academically?

To that end, the opinions are as mixed as the BCS computers.

"I think it'd be a great experience for both teams, but it's tough," said Michigan tackle Tony Pape. "It's a long season for a student-athlete. Going to class and going to practice, it wears on you."

"We've held up this long," Udeze said, "I think we could hold up for another game or two."

Any such game or games, while nice to talk about, won't be taking place for at least another three years.

In the meantime, the Rose Bowl, which suffered a serious dip in interest locally the past two years due to non-traditional matchups (Miami-Nebraska and Oklahoma-Washington State), is basking in the glory of its return to classic status.

Strange as it may seem to those outside Big Ten and Pac-10 country, or to those who started following the sport only recently, there are still many traditionalists left for whom a Michigan-USC Rose Bowl, regardless of the rankings, is actually more appealing than a Super Bowl-like title game.

"The question I was asked before the season was, 'Would you be disappointed to not be in the Sugar Bowl?'" Carr said. "I can tell you, I would never be disappointed to take a team to the Rose Bowl. To play in that stadium -- outdoors, on grass, in the sunshine -- how could you be disappointed?"

Of course, that's easy for Carr to say, considering the Sugar Bowl wasn't really an option for his team after it lost two games. For Carroll, a born-and-bred Californian, even a life-long admiration for the Rose Bowl can't completely mask the slight his team has endured.

"What has occurred is a clear example of the system not working out right," he said. "That in itself is a good thing in that now we can take steps to make it more accurate. How to do that, I have no idea."

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.