The Rose Bowl is the nation’s oldest college football bowl game.
First played on Jan. 1, 1902, the meeting between the University of Michigan and Stanford University was billed as the centerpiece to the “Tournament of Roses” parade, which was established in 1890 in Pasadena, Calif.
The football game did not become an annual tradition until 1916. It found a permanent home at Rose Bowl Stadium after it was completed for the 1923 game.
The game initially featured the winner of the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (now Pac-12) and an opponent with a winning record. In 1947, the Rose Bowl game primarily featured teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences.
In 1998, the Rose Bowl game became part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Until 2014, it maintained ties to the Big Ten and Pac-12 when not hosting the championship game.
The game is now part of the College Football Playoff. On Jan. 1, 2018, the playoff semifinal will feature the Georgia Bulldogs and Oklahoma Sooners to determine who plays for the national title.
Both Georgia (1943) and Oklahoma (2003) have played in the game once before, each scoring wins.
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