PASADENA (CBSLA) — The Rose Bowl, which has been played every year since 1916, will not skip 2021 despite the ongoing pandemic, according to the College Football Playoff.

With COVID-19 surging and gatherings banned in Los Angeles County, there were concerns that the College Football Playoff might reconsider the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as one of its semifinals, especially after the stadium announced Monday that no fans or family would be allowed in the stands.

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1. Sep 10, 2014 - Climb to the top of the Coca-Cola tower in Black Knights Alley.
2. The New Year's Six, sometimes abbreviated as NY6, is an unofficial but commonly used term that refers to the top six major NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision bowl games: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, and Fiesta Bowl. These games are played annually on or around New Year's Day, and represent six of the ten oldest bowl games currently played at the FBS level. These six top-tier bowl games rotate the hosting of the two College Football.

Fox College Football (Fox CFB for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2. Initial college football broadcasts on the Fox network were limited to selected bowl games, beginning.

“While we are disappointed that the Rose Bowl Game will not be played in front of spectators, we are pleased that we are still able to hold the game this year, continuing with the 100-year plus tradition of The Grandaddy of Them All,” David Eads, executive director and CEO of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, said in a statement.

The Tournament of Roses requested special permission for a limited number of spectators at the game, but the request was denied.

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On Tuesday night, the College Football Playoff made it clear they plan to proceed with the New Year’s Day bowl game in Pasadena with this statement:

‘At this moment, the College Football Playoff looks forward to playing one of the two semi-final playoff games at the Rose Bowl, as scheduled. As we move forward with our planning, we continue to hope that the Rose Bowl’s appeal to government officials to allow the families of student-athletes to attend will be permitted, just as student-athlete families will be welcomed at the Sugar Bowl, the other New Years’ Six games and the championship game in Miami.”

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The 2021 CFP Semifinal the Rose Bowl kicks off at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day. The big event that usually precedes the Rose Bowl, the Tournament of Roses Parade, was cancelled in July.

Below we isolate our top moneyline plays in college football on New Year’s Day so let’s take a look at some games to get the year off to a winning start and keep cashing our NCAAF picks!

Peach Bowl

Cincinnati Bearcats vs. Georgia Bulldogs

Friday, January 1, 2021 – 12:00 PM ET at Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Cincinnati has an ax to grind, and they will get their chance to grind it against the Georgia Bulldogs on New Year’s Day. The Bearcats have done everything right this season in winning the AAC Championship and going undefeated over the course of their nine-game season. Cincinnati has averaged 39.3 points per game while surrendering only 16 and was favored in every game but one this season. In their lone contest as a narrow one-point underdog, the Cats blew out SMU to the tune of 42-13.

All of that might bode well for a Cincinnati upset, but the college football odds on this game have installed Georgia as a seven-point favorite across the board. There is a good reason for that as the Bulldogs played a much tougher schedule, residing in the SEC, although their statistics in the four major categories, points scored, points allowed, passing yards, and rushing yards all slightly favor the Bearcats. But those Cincinnati stats were accrued against subpar and mediocre competition. The Dawgs did it against the best. This game will prove why undefeated teams outside of the Power Five don’t get into the CFP.

Free Moneyline Pick: Georgia (-265) at BookMaker (visit our BookMaker Review)

Citrus Bowl

Auburn Tigers vs. Northwestern Wildcats

Friday, January 1, 2021 - 1:00 PM ET at Camping World Stadium

The SEC sends another entry into a New Year’s Six bowl when Auburn takes on the powerhouse from the Big Ten West, Northwestern. The Tigers enter this matchup with a rather pedestrian 6-4 mark (5-5 ATS) and will be overlooked because of it.

News Year Day Football Games 2019

That would be a costly mistake because Auburn has pulled itself together and won four of their last six contests by sizeable margins and covered the number in all of those victories. Their only losses during that stretch were to Alabama (of course) and No. 6 Texas A&M. Northwestern is a good team, but they will get outclassed in this one as Auburn’s balanced offense will be more than the stout Wildcats’ defense can handle. Back the underdog in your college football picks and expect an outright victory by Auburn.

Free Moneyline Pick:Auburn (+145) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)

Sugar Bowl

Clemson Tigers vs. Ohio State Buckeyes

Friday, January 1, 2021 - 8:00 PM ET at Mercedes-Benz Superdome

This is the second of two College Football Playoff games on Friday and will occur right around the time the grounds crew has cleaned up the massacre at AT&T Stadium when the Crimson Tide throttles the Irish of Notre Dame in the early game.

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Clemson checks in after a stunning display of football domination over one of the best teams in the nation, Notre Dame. When the dust settled the Tigers had closed the case on a 34-10 victory over the Irish as 11 ½ point favorites.

Meanwhile, Ohio State was putting the finishing touches on their truncated season when they defeated Northwestern to claim the Big Ten title. The knock on the Buckeyes is that they were late to the party and didn’t start playing until the end of October, which allowed them only five regular-season games plus their conference championship showdown with the Wildcats.

New Year Day Football Games 2013 2019

Clemson and Ohio State boast the two best college quarterbacks in the nation who will be taking the next step to fame and fortune in next April’s NFL Draft. You can make a case for either one, so I’m not basing my selection on who’s better, Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields? But the air war will be won by the Tigers because of better receivers, and that will prohibit Ohio State from ground-and-pounding with their vaunted rushing attack. It’s hard to run the ball when you’re trailing by double digits.

The bottom line here is to use the Tigers in a parlay because the juice is tough to swallow in a flat bet. Maybe you pair them with Georgia in the early game? But whatever you do, bet Clemson over at Bovada!

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Free Moneyline Pick:Clemson (-300) at Bovada (visit our Bovada Review)

Football Games New Year's Day