2016-17 Rose Bowl, Penn State vs. USC: Date, time, location, and everything to know

Also, head over here for the fully updated bowl season calendar as it fills in, from the New Orleans Bowl through the Rose Bowl. We’ll also add picks, scores, and more to that calendar over time.

The 2016-2017 Rose Bowl may be part of the New Year’s Six, but it will not be played on New Year’s Day. Instead, Big Ten champion Penn State and USC, the highest-ranked non-Playoff team from the Pac-12, will meet on Jan. 2, thanks to the bowl’s long-standing tradition of playing on that date when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday.

The date may seem unusual for college football’s oldest bowl, which has only been played on a day other than New Year’s Day 15 times in 102 Rose Bowl Games, but the tradition of avoiding Sunday for the Rose Parade dates back to 1893. And the Rose Bowl Game and Rose Parade get what they want.

Such is the power of The Granddaddy of Them All, which has successfully resisted all attempts by corporate sponsors to stick a brand name in front of Rose Bowl Game — this year’s edition will be the third Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual — and by corporate partners to budge from its treasured New Year’s Day evening time slot.

No single event captures college football in all its glory and peculiarity quite like the Rose Bowl, held in picturesque Pasadena for all but one of those 102 games.

Here is everything you need to know in preparation for this year’s Rose Bowl:

Date and time: Jan. 2, 5 p.m. ET

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Pasadena, California

Stadium: Rose Bowl

Last year’s score: Stanford 45, Iowa 16

Last year’s attendance: 94,268

Teams with the most all-time appearances: USC, 33

Teams with the most all-time wins: USC, 24

Penn State (11-2, 8-1 in Big Ten)

James Franklin can’t win the big one, you say? Well, ask the folks at Ohio State what they think about that, and now ask Wisconsin, too. Penn State got its white whale win on a Saturday night in October, downing the Buckeyes. Then the Nittany Lions kept going, and they beat the Badgers in the Big Ten Championship Game.

The Lions ran roughshod over much of the Big Ten (besides a loss to Michigan) en route to an awesome season coming from essentially out of nowhere.

They were going to start an unproven commodity at QB in Trace McSorley. Saquon Barkley was good, but petered out at the end of last season. The defense had to replace its coordinator and there was reasonable doubt that Penn State could be good.

But after stumbling out of the gates against Pitt and Michigan and falling to 2-2, all the Lions did was win on their way home. If more hype is coming their way this offseason (and it likely is), one more big moment can’t hurt it.

USC (9-3, 7-2 in Pac-12)

When you see “preseason No. 1 USC Trojans” next August, remember this moment as the catalyst for that. It’s time for USC to cap off an impressive end to its 2016 season with the all-important bowl bump in order to gobble up all offseason accolades. The 2017 USC hype train will be out in full force, and this is when it truly leaves the station.

It seems that the offense was one missing piece away from reaching its vast potential, and that piece was QB Sam Darnold. When the freshman got inserted into the fold early this season, it seemed like the Trojans could do no wrong. With all the talent returning to USC at all positions, a bowl game for the Trojans will be a showcase to display all the horses that have flown under the radar in Los Angeles.

Most wrote the team off after a season-opening evisceration by Alabama, and everyone else stopped paying attention after they lost three of their first four. But USC quietly became one of the nation’s most impressive teams in the season’s second half and now it’s time to start building to a high-stakes 2017 with a big ending to 2016.

USC jumped Colorado to take the Pac-12’s bid to this game after the Buffs lost in the Pac-12 Championship Game against Washington.