Texas would defeat USC (whose loss was later officially vacated)[3] 41–38 to capture its fourth football championship in program history and first consensus national title since 1969.

[4] ESPN named Young's fourth-down, game-winning touchdown run the fifth-highest rated play in college football history.

It was also the final time until the BCS National Championship Game for the 2009 Season that it was broadcast as an ESPN on ABC presentation.

A few weeks before the game, USC's Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy (since vacated in 2010) ahead of second-place finisher Vince Young.

[22] ESPN analysts were virtually unanimous in declaring the 2005 USC Trojans as having the best offense in college football history [23] (though it did not lead the nation in points scored; Texas did).

A 23-yard Leinart pass to senior fullback David Kirtman, who was hit hard by Cedric Griffin and forced to leave the game briefly (Kirtman finished the game with three catches for 61 yards on the day), set up a four-yard touchdown run by running back LenDale White, a bruiser who out-rushed his speedy counterpart, Bush, on the day, gaining 124 yards on 20 carries.

On the second play of the second quarter, Reggie Bush exploded for 35 yards off a Leinart pass, reaching Texas's 18-yard line before attempting to lateral pass the ball to an uncovered teammate; Texas strong safety Michael Huff recovered the loose ball.

The Trojans' defense tackled sophomore running back Ramonce Taylor five yards behind the line of scrimmage and forced a fumble that Young recovered for an additional five-yard loss.

On USC's next possession, Leinart drove his team into Texas territory, this time to the 25-yard line, before throwing an interception to Texas free safety Michael Griffin, who appeared to be out of the play but ran halfway across the field before making a leaping catch and barely staying in-bounds in the end zone.

On the following Texas drive, Young connected with wide receiver Limas Sweed, who caught eight balls for 65 yards on the day, for a key first down.

[25] The NCAA football-officiating coordinator later asserted that Young's knee had been down, and expressed confusion about how the call had been handled.

USC's drive continued with a Leinart pass to wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, the top Trojan receiver of the day with ten catches totaling 121 yards, a quarterback keeper of 14 yards, and a Bush 12-yard run took the Trojans to the Texas 13-yard line with 40 seconds to play in the half.

But two sacks by defensive tackle Frank Okam pushed USC back 13 yards and forced the Trojans to use two timeouts.

The Trojan defense came back strong from the halftime break and forced a punt on the Longhorns' opening drive of the third quarter.

Young scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns from 14 yards out, and Pino's successful extra-point attempt moved the Longhorns ahead, 23–17.

The lead changed hands once more with 4:07 to play in the third quarter, as Leinart hit tight end Dominique Byrd for two of his four catches and 21 of his 32 yards in the next drive and set up the next score.

[28] Two Vince Young completions to wide receiver Billy Pittman, who caught four passes for 53 yards on the day, helped the Longhorns drive to USC's 17-yard line on the next possession.

Brown and a teammate collided as Jarrett stretched the ball over the goal line, and the successful extra-point attempt gave USC its biggest lead of the game, 38–26.

Young bolted towards the right sideline and received a critical block from Justin Blalock and won a footrace to the end zone.

That score, Young's third rushing touchdown of the game, gave the Longhorns a one-point lead with 19 seconds left to play.

The Trojans did not have Heisman winner Bush on the field for the 4th down play; LenDale White received the handoff and was stuffed by the Longhorn defense.

Mack Brown, previously maligned for his inability to win big games, thus ended the fourth-longest winning streak in Division I-A history – and the longest since a 35-game streak by Toledo ended in 1971 – and, behind Young, who accounted for 839 yards of total offense in his two Rose Bowl appearances, won the first national title for Texas since 1970.

Four players from the game went on to become top-ten picks in the 2006 NFL draft: Reggie Bush (2nd overall, New Orleans), Vince Young (3rd overall, Tennessee), Michael Huff (7th overall, Oakland), and Matt Leinart (10th overall, Arizona).

Taitusi Lutui, Fred Matua, LenDale White, David Kirtman, Winston Justice, Cedric Griffin, David Thomas, Frostee Rucker, Dominique Byrd, Darnell Bing, Jonathan Scott, LaJuan Ramsey, and Rodrique Wright were drafted in the next six rounds.

[29] Since the game, the media, coaches, and other commentators have heaped praise upon the Texas team, Vince Young, and the Rose Bowl performance.

[39] In 2007, ESPN compiled a list of the top 100 plays in college football history; Vince Young's game-winning touchdown in the 2006 Rose Bowl ranked number 5.

Ironically, USC opted to go without instant replay for its game against Notre Dame that season, and won on the final play when Reggie Bush illegally shoved Matt Leinart over the goal line.