Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO

The Rose Bowl is a college football bowl game played annually at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif. Part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and traditionally contested on New Year's Day, the Rose Bowl pits the Pac-10 Conference champion against the Big Ten Conference champion (unless either team is in the national championship game). First played Jan. 1, 1902 (and then played annually from 1916 to the present), the Rose Bowl is the oldest bowl game in the country and is known as "The Granddaddy of Them All." Through the 2012 Rose Bowl -- in which Oregon defeated Wisconsin -- the game has featured 18 Heisman Trophy winners and produced 29 national champions.

The Rose Bowl game dates to 1902, when the Tournament of Roses Association decided to enhance its New Year's Day festivities by adding a football game. That year, Stanford University agreed to play the University of Michigan, one of the best college teams in the nation, in the "Tournament East-West football game" at Tournament Park in Pasadena.

The game ended in a 49-0 blowout victory for Michigan, and event organizers decided against keeping the football game as part of its New Year's program. But the game returned in 1916, when Washington State defeated Brown University in the initial Rose Bowl game.

With the game established as an annual contest, event organizers began a push for a larger stadium to serve as host venue. Designed after Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., the Rose Bowl stadium was built in the early 1920s and replaced Tournament Park for the 1923 game, when the University of Southern California (USC) defeated Penn State 14-3.

The stadium's original seating capacity of 57,000 was increased as the game's popularity grew, with additions bringing the total to 76,000 in 1928 and 83,677 in 1932. By that year, a team from the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) served as the western representative in the Rose Bowl, matched against an Eastern school invited to California for the New Year's game. USC and Stanford represented the conference multiple times in the 1930s, with the Trojans winning five Rose Bowl games between 1930 and 1940.

Amid concerns on the West Coast after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Rose Bowl organizers considered cancelling the 1942 game. But Duke University offered to serve as host, and the game moved to Durham, N.C., for a year, when Oregon State topped the Blue Devils 20-16.

In 1946, the Big Ten Conference entered into an agreement with the Tournament of Roses Association, enabling its champion to play the champion of the PCC in each year's Rose Bowl game. (That pact remains the oldest intercollegiate postseason bowl agreement between two major conferences in the United States.)

Two years later, the Rose Bowl was broadcast by a Los Angeles TV station, and in 1952 NBC aired the game as the first national telecast of a college football game. Ten years after that landmark, the Rose Bowl became the first-ever coast-to-coast color telecast of a college football game (also on NBC), as Minnesota topped UCLA 21-3. The 1960s saw a number of big-name stars lead their teams to Rose Bowl victories, including UCLA's Gary Beban, Bob Griese of Purdue and USC running back O.J. Simpson.

USC met Ohio State in the Rose Bowl three straight years from 1973 to 1975, with the 106,869 fans in attendance at the '73 game representing stadium and NCAA bowl game records that still stand. In that game, an undefeated and No. 1 USC eased past No. 3 Ohio State 42-17.

UCLA claimed three Rose Bowl victories in the 1980s, while Big Ten power Michigan played in four of five Rose Bowl contests between 1989 and 1993, winning two times. Wisconsin captured its first Rose Bowl victory in 1994, the first of three for the Big Ten school in that decade.

With the creation of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system in 1998, the Rose Bowl and other major bowls became part of college football's new postseason setup to determine a national champion. With the major bowls taking turns hosting the de facto championship matchup, the Rose Bowl filled that role in 2002 -- when Miami defeated Nebraska to win a national title -- and in 2006, when Vince Young led Texas to a last-minute win over USC to earn a championship.

The following season saw a standalone game added as the annual national championship contest, to be hosted by the same site (and committee) as one of the major bowls. This new arrangement also meant that the Rose Bowl game would annually pit the Pac-10 Conference champion against the Big Ten Conference champion (unless either team is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation, when they would then play in the national championship game).

In January 2010, Ohio State defeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl, and a week later the stadium in Pasadena and Rose Bowl committee hosted the national championship game, when Alabama topped Texas 37-21. The 2011 edition featured non-BCS school TCU, which defeated Wisconsin 21-19 after stopping a potential game-tying two-point conversion in the closing minutes. The Badgers came up on the losing end again the following season, falling to Oregon, 45-38. It was the Ducks first Rose Bowl win since 1917.

The Rose Bowl is an outdoor football stadium located in Pasadena, Calif., that is known mainly as home to the oldest college bowl game in the country, the Rose Bowl. The home field of UCLA's football team since 1982, the Rose Bowl also hosted competitions during the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1994 World Cup.

Designed after the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., the Rose Bowl was built in the early 1920s and replaced Tournament Park for the 1923 New Year's Day game. The stadium's original seating capacity of 57,000 was increased as the game's popularity grew, with additions bringing the total to 76,000 in 1928 and 83,677 in 1932. By the 1970s, the Rose Bowl's capacity had surpassed 100,000.

The 1973 Rose Bowl game attracted a crowd of 106,869, representing stadium and NCAA bowl game records that still stand. Seating capacity is now approximately 91,000, with available seating for the Rose Bowl game estimated at 87,400.

Besides being home to the annual bowl game, the Rose Bowl has hosted five NFL Super Bowl games, along with the 1994 World Cup final as well as the 1999 Women's World Cup final. Part of college football's Bowl Championship Series, the Rose Bowl was the site of national championship games in 2002, 2006 and 2010.