Measly is the key word here. In the 80s it wasn't measly.
Today's Rose Bowl is the equivalent of the British monarchy. A meaningless, low-rent throwback to the dark ages, only kept around to humor the geriatric good ol' days crowd. They keep up the fake pageantry because they can't bear to hurt grandma's feelings as she slips into the nursing home, wearing her 1979 Rose Bowl pin and her 1974 program framed on the wall. It's a little like when Willie Nelson told us how the Federales kept letting Pancho slip away because they felt sorry for how he'd become a shell of a man.
It's the Mossimo of football. At one time influential and relevant, but since then acquired 7 times by various Chinese holding companies, now made on the Rustler jeans sewing line and sold at Dollar General.
Your dream is gone, friend.