The College Football Playoff semifinal will no longer take place at the storied Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Instead, it has been relocated to Dallas.
The Rose Bowl announced late Saturday night that the game will be moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Southern California. It will still be played on Jan. 1 and broadcast on ESPN.
California’s state restrictions also would not have permitted family members of players and coaches to attend the game, which also factored into the decision.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly had even threatened to not have his team participate in the game if family members could not attend.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses had been trying to appeal for a special exemption for the Rose Bowl but multiple requests were denied. They reportedly asked state health officials to allow 400-500 spectators in the 95,000-seat stadium to no avail.
"We know that the decision was not an easy one to make," Tournament of Roses director David Eads said in a statement. "While we remain confident that a game could have been played at the Rose Bowl Stadium, as evident in the other collegiate and professional games taking place in the region, the projection of COVID-19 cases in the region has continued on an upward trend.”
It has yet to be decided whether or not the College Football Playoff semifinal will continue to be referred to as the Rose Bowl (its official title is the CFP Semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Capital One).
It is also just the second time in the history of the Rose Bowl that it will be played outside Pasadena. The last time it happened was in 1942 when it was played at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
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