There’s no better setting for a college football game than the Rose Bowl. With beautiful weather, a beautiful field and a packed stadium, The Granddaddy of Them All is seldom topped each January.
Rose Bowl 2014: TV schedule, streaming, preview for Stanford vs. Michigan State
The 100th Rose Bowl is here. Get ready for a day of hard-nosed, physical football in Pasadena. (5 p.m. ET, ESPN.)
Bowl Central: SB Nation has all the info you need
We should be in for a terrific game between Michigan State and Stanford. As teams around the country shift to the spread attack, the Spartans and Cardinal still prioritize pounding the ball on the ground and playing good, sound defense. That’s not to say there aren’t some real playmakers on the offensive side of the ball, but this doesn’t appear to be one of those shootout-type matchups where the first team to 50 wins.
Here’s everything you need to know to watch the 100th Rose Bowl.
Must Reads
Must Reads
The numbers
Rankings and records: Michigan State comes ranked fourth and as Big Ten champions with a 12-1 record. The Spartans’ lone loss was to Notre Dame by four points back in September. Stanford, ranked fifth, is 11-2, and after defeating Arizona State in Tempe, the Cardinal claimed the Pac-12 championship.
Vegas: Stanford opened as a 3.5-point favorite. The over/under is set at 42.5 points.
Weather: Mostly clear skies with a high of 73 and a low of 46
Bowl facts:
Location: Pasadena, California
Stadium: Rose Bowl (92,542 capacity)
Tickets: Find available seats here.
Last year’s score: 20-14, Stanford over Wisconsin
Last year’s attendance: 93,359
Last year’s TV rating: 9.6 (17 million viewers)
Last year’s payout for each school: Reports place the total somewhere in between $17 to 18 million.
Team with the most all-time appearances: USC leads the way with 32. Its last appearance was in 2009.
Team with the most all-time wins: Also USC -- the Trojans have 23 wins in Pasadena.
Three names to know
Tyler Gaffney: Maybe the best player in the country you've never heard of, Gaffney torched defenses for 1,618 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground this season. The Cardinal love to pound the ball, and Gaffney is the guy who leads the charge.
BCS Eulogy
College football's money-printing postseason will soon have a new name and a new format. But let's pretend the last official week of the Bowl Championship Series is also the birth of something new. Shayne Skov: A potential first-rounder in the 2014 draft, Skov has some of the best instincts in the country as an inside linebacker. He will need to play a big role in keeping Michigan State's run game in check.
Jeremy Langford: Langford is the driving force behind the Spartans' rushing attack. Once he started getting a bulk of the carries when conference play rolled around, he hit triple-digit yardage in each of MSU's final eight games of the season.
Two things at stake
Michigan State hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1988. While this season will be viewed as a success win or lose on New Year’s Day, a win would cap off one of the best years in school history.
A win would give the Cardinal back-to-back Rose Bowl titles. The last team to do that? USC in 2008 and 2009.
How to witness
TV: 5 p.m. ET, ESPN
Online streaming: WatchESPN; Xfinity subscribers can watch the game here.
Further reading
For more on the game, check out Rule of Tree and The Only Colors.
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