The Indiana Hoosiers edged the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Big Ten championship and were rewarded Sunday morning with a No. 1 College Football Playoff ranking and the invitation to the Rose Bowl that goes with it.
Indiana (13-0) will play the winner of the CFP quarterfinal between No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2) and No. 9 Alabama (10-3). The Sooners host the quarterfinal game on Dec. 19 at 5 p.m. PST on the Oklahoma campus. The game will air on ESPN and ABC.
The Rose Bowl will kick off at 1 p.m. on Jan. 1 and will air on ESPN.
Indiana won its first Big Ten title since 1967 and will make its first Rose Bowl appearance since 1968, when it lost to national champion USC. The Hoosiers haven’t played in the Rose Bowl in decades, but many members of the team are familiar with the iconic venue. Indiana rolled to a 42-13 win over UCLA at the Rose Bowl in September 2024.
“Obviously it’s the Granddaddy of Them All, with a lot of great tradition involving the Big Ten, so we’re excited about that,” Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a football game, and we’ll approach it like every other game, including last night’s game. We’ll be looking forward to getting out there.”
Indiana will have to wait to learn whether it will be tangling with Oklahoma or Alabama amid its push for a national title.
The Sooners closed the regular season on a four-game win streak, including victories over No. 14 Tennessee, No. 4 Alabama and No. 22 Missouri.
“I know for some people, the debate has been … maybe we don’t belong in the playoffs,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said. “… Our focus, our energy, our detail is to be able to play for a championship, no matter how crazy that might seem to everybody else. Our team believes we have everything we need to do so.”
Alabama gave up 17 points off three turnovers in Norman on Nov. 15 while outgaining the Sooners 406-212, suggesting their playoff rematch should be competitive.
“We didn’t take care of the ball the way we normally do, and we lost the turnover margin,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer told ESPN on Sunday. “That’s a credit to them. We missed on a couple of opportunities that really could have changed the outcome in a two-point loss.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
