Happy New Year. It also means that we (usually) have the Rose Bowl to watch in the late afternoon/early evening, depending on your time zone.

The “Granddaddy Of Them All”—as 15-time Rose Bowl play-by-play man, the late Keith Jackson, used to call it—is unique in several ways.

Regardless of your fan affiliation, for the longest time, tickets to the Rose Bowl were and are cherished. I've been to several Rose Bowl Games—even had a brush with death at the Wisconsin–TCU game—and I still have all the ticket stubs in my records.

The Rose Bowl is one of those sporting events that simply reeks of tradition, and there are several reasons for its unique standing.

For decades, fans in the Big 10 and Pac 10 dreamed of their team getting to the big game every year. No wonder—several of the greatest college football games of all-time were at the Rose Bowl.

Below we're going to discuss just what sets the Rose Bowl apart from other bowl games.

History

The Rose Bowl is the oldest bowl game in college football. The first contest was staged in 1902.

The game itself has always been just a part of an overall event in Pasadena, California called the Tournament of Roses.

The Tournament of Roses actually lasts several days, and it is a celebration of not only the holidays, but of academics and tradition in general. Other than the football game, The Rose Parade (or the Tournament of Roses Parade) is the main attraction and the nation's largest all-floral parade.

When the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it was merely an attraction to help fund the parade.

In fact, from 1903 until 1915, the Tournament of Roses did not even include a football game. The first game, between Michigan and Stanford, was such a blowout (Michigan won 49-0) that the premier athletic contest for several years at the Tournament of Roses were chariot races. Yes, Roman-style chariot races.

However, the football game returned in 1916 and has been the culmination of the Tournament of Roses ever since.

Setting

Although some may argue, most fans of college football consider the Rose Bowl the most beautiful and scenic stadium in the United States. The San Gabriel Mountains surround the stadium, and there's nothing more beautiful than watching the sun set behind the mountains as the lights in the stadium hit the field.

Even though the stadium holds over 92,000 fans, the setting is quite intimate, as there are simply no bad seats anywhere inside the venue. It was dedicated on January 1, 1923, and is one of the oldest stadiums still in use in the United States.

The Rose Bowl has also hosted other historic events, including several Super Bowls and two soccer World Cup Finals—the 1994 men's cup and the 1999 women's event.

Stakes

By attending the Rose Bowl (or even watching it on television), it still allows college football fans to see an important game every year. Several national championships have been won and lost at the Rose Bowl, notably in 2006 when underdog Texas defeated USC in a game that many have called the "greatest ever played." (We tried getting into that game, but tickets were incredibly hard to come by and ended up watching the contest at an L.A.-area Outback Steakhouse instead.)

For more than 50 years, the Rose Bowl featured the champion of the Big 10 against the champion of the Pac 10 (or Pac 8 or Pac 12). Over the years, the Rose Bowl committee has absconded with tradition somewhat—by first allowing itself to be aligned with the BCS, which meant that the stadium hosted the BCS National Championship game every four seasons and was never guaranteed a Big 10/Pac 10 matchup.

However, most years still pitted the Big 10 against the Pac 10. In Pasadena, they get to still at least pretend that tradition is something held in high regard.

Since the implosion of the Pac 10/Pac 12 prior to the 2024 season, the advent of college football "playoffs," and this being the first year of the 12-team version of the playoffs, neither the game or the venue hold quite as much importance as they used to.

It's just another one of the college playoff games and won't always be the New Year's Day event that it was originally designed to be.

Yet, this year, the CFB Playoff tournament committee got lucky. They ended up with a somewhat "traditional" matchup this year—Oregon vs. Ohio State.

Though, quite oddly, Pacific coast stalwart Oregon emerged from the 2024 season as the champion of the Midwest-centric Big 10—something most lifelong college football fans will never likely cotton to.

Overall, the Rose Bowl is still unique, and the Rose Bowl Game is always a chance to see history played out on the field live.

Let's hope for a great game tonight.

Go Ducks.

As always,

Brian

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