Top-ranked Indiana will play the winner of the first-round College Football Playoff game between Oklahoma and Alabama in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The Hoosiers earned the top ranking in both the College Football Playoff and Associated Press polls for the first time in school history, a first-round bye and Rose Bowl berth with a 13-10 victory over previously undefeated, top-ranked and defending national champion Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis on Saturday night.
The Big Ten championship was the first outright conference championship for Indiana (13-0) since 1945. It shared the conference championship in 1967 with Minnesota and Purdue with 6-1 records, but Indiana got the Rose Bowl berth on a vote of the conference’s athletic directors over Minnesota because it had never previously appeared in the Rose Bowl.
Purdue was ineligible for the Rose Bowl berth under the Big Ten Conference’s “no repeat” rule then in effect. The Boilermakers defeated USC, 14-13, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2, 1967.
Indiana lost to USC, 14-3, in its only Rose Bowl appearance on Jan. 1, 1968 as O.J. Simpson ran for both Trojans touchdowns and was selected as the Player of the Game as USC won the national championship.
Oklahoma (10-2) received the eighth seed in the College Football Playoff bracket released Sunday and will play host to ninth-seeded Alabama (10- 3) on Dec. 19 in a first-round game at Norman, Oklahoma.
The 112th annual Rose Bowl game is set to begin at 1 p.m. on Jan. 1, one hour earlier than its traditional start. The game will serve as a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. The winner will face the winner of the Orange Bowl between Texas Tech and the James Madison-Oregon first-round winner.
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