The Rose Bowl

I'm telling ya.  Theres nothing like a New Years Day (maybe a little hung over) and listening to Keith Jackson call the Grand Daddy of 'em All.  This year it looks like its going to be a show down between USC and Texas.  As always, get your Rose Bowl Tickets on eBay.

Rose Bowl History

The bowl game originated as an extra added attraction to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses (does anybody really watch the parade).

From 1922 through 1945, the Rose Bowl pitted the Pacific Coast Conference champion against an at-large opponent, usually from the East. Starting with the 1946 season, the bowl featured the Pac-10 and Big Ten champions.

With the formation of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), if either conference champion is ranked #1 or #2, that champion will play in the BCS championship game and will be replaced by that conference's second-ranked team. The Rose Bowl last hosted the BCS championship game on Jan. 3, 2002 and it is slated to do so this year.

Rose Bowl Hoax

During the 1961 game several students from nearby Caltech pulled a prank on the cheerleaders from Washington, widely known as "The Great Rose Bowl Hoax" due to its televised audience of nearly 10 million. The prank involved hijacking a flip-card show during the halftime break. The Caltech students managed to substitute the instructions for creating the flip-card images. The resulting changes included: the Caltech Beaver in place of the Washington Husky, the team name "HUSKIES" was inverted to "SEIKSUH", these were then followed with the name "CALTECH" in large letters as seen

USC

The big question in college football is "Can anyone beat USC?".  USC is coached by former Jets and Patriots coach Pete Carroll.  After failing as an NFL coach for several years, Pete found his footing in the college game and really turned around the USC program.  Man do they keep winning.  As I write this, it looks like they are off to another big win against Cal.  No one can match their player makers.  They probably have the two best players in college football in Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart.

Texas

Looks like Mac Brown is finally off the snide this year down in Austin.  With a big early season win over Ohio State in Columbus and breaking the jinx against Oklahoma, Texas looks like they are headed for the big game.  Texas is led by the third best player in college footbal - Vince Young.  He has the skills to do it all from the quarterback position and they have a great freshman running back named Jamaal Charles.