This marked the first time the Rose Bowl agreed to release the Big Ten or Pac-12 champion to play in a national championship game if they were ranked #1 or #2.

With the expansion of the College Football Playoff to twelve teams in the 2024–25 season, the Rose Bowl will serve as either a quarterfinal or semifinal each year.

When serving as a quarterfinal, the Rose Bowl will host the Big Ten champion, if seeded in the top four.

When serving as a semifinal, the game will be played one week after New Year's Day, and, if the Big Ten champion is one of the top two seeds, the team will be assigned to the Rose Bowl.

These include the 1925 game, with Knute Rockne's Notre Dame and their Four Horsemen, against "Pop" Warner's Stanford; the 1926 edition saw the Alabama Crimson Tide's win over Washington; and 1940 featured Howard Jones' USC Trojans against Bob Neyland's Tennessee Volunteers.

The Big Nine and PCC were of the same accord when it came to treating players as amateurs, as compared to the semi-professional status that the Southern Universities proposed.

The Big Ten Conference retained the same name throughout this period, even though it had eleven members by the start of the BCS era because of the addition of Penn State in 1990.

Under this rule, any team that had appeared in the Rose Bowl game the previous season could not go, even if they were the conference champion.

[30] The PCC's rule went into effect following California's third straight defeat in 1951 and ended with conference's disbandment in the summer of 1959; it affected the 1955 and 1958 games.

3 Colorado, who would play Oregon in that year's Fiesta Bowl, did and won the Big 12's automatic bid to the BCS).

The game had a television viewership of 35.6 million,[31] the highest for college football contest since the 1987 Fiesta Bowl between Penn State and Miami.

The 2003 Rose Bowl couldn't select Big Ten co-champion and automatic qualifier Ohio State, who finished No.

The 2005 game featured Texas of the Big 12 Conference, selected, amid some controversy, over California of the Pac-10, marking the second time a West Coast team did not make the Rose Bowl.

In this game, USC defeated Michigan, 28–14, thus earning the top ranking in the AP Poll and a share of the national championship with BCS champion LSU.

[32] As a result, Texas Christian University (TCU) became the first team from a non-automatic qualifying conference to play in the Rose Bowl in the BCS era.

The 2010 TCU Horned Frogs finished their second consecutive regular season at 12–0, were back-to-back champions of the Mountain West Conference, and ranked No.

Penn State set a record for the most points score by a losing team in a Rose Bowl, as USC won, 52–49.

[33] This was met with criticism,[34] including from Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, who wanted players' families to be allowed to attend.

Starting in 2002, the Rose Bowl Game occasionally deviated from its traditional matchups for use in "national championship" systems.

During non-CFP years, the Rose Bowl reverted to its traditional Pac-12/Big Ten matchup, unless the champions from those conferences were selected to play in the CFP.

[44] In October 2010, HDTV maker Vizio signed a 4-year contract to be the official sponsor of the Rose Bowl games through 2014.

[45][46] After Vizio declined to renew sponsorship in 2014, financial services giant Northwestern Mutual became the new presenting sponsor.

[58] The visual of the afternoon sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains on New Year's Day is recognized as an important part of the tradition of the game.

In 2024, as part of a dissolution of the Pac-12, the Big Ten gained four teams that have represented the Pac-12 and its predecessors in the Rose Bowl numerous times: Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington.

As of 2016, head coaches Howard Jones (5–0) and John Robinson (4–0) lead the list of undefeated Rose Bowl records.

[68] Archie Griffin of Ohio State and Brian Cushing of USC are the only players to ever start in four Rose Bowl games.

Idaho and Montana, who were members of the Pacific Coast Conference from 1922 until 1958 and 1950 respectively, never finished near the top in the PCC football standings.

As of 2024, the only Big Ten opponents remaining for the Trojans are Iowa, Minnesota, and the schools that have never represented the conference in the Rose Bowl: Maryland, Nebraska, Rutgers, Oregon, UCLA, and Washington.

The Rose Bowl does not have other performers (including notable recording artists) during the halftime show besides the school marching bands.

For the 100th game on January 1, 2014, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill and Darlene Love sang the national anthem in honor of the song's 200th anniversary.