Also, click over here for the full 2017-2018 college football bowl game schedule as it’s announced throughout Sunday.
Rose Bowl semifinal 2017: Georgia vs. Oklahoma location, date, and more
Date, time, location, team records, and more on this newly announced bowl game.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Where is the Rose Bowl semifinal, and how can I watch?
Stadium and city: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
Date and time: Jan. 1, 5 p.m. ET
TV and streaming: ESPN and WatchESPN
What should I know about the two teams in the Rose Bowl semifinal?
No. 3 Georgia (12-1, 7-1 in SEC)
Your 2017 SEC champions are the Georgia Bulldogs. In a down SEC East division, the Dawgs not only won, they dominated almost all comers. The dream season for UGA started with a wonderful road trip at Notre Dame in Week 2 in which fans painted both Chicago and South Bend in red and black.
Georgia navigated the twists and turns looking dominant until the rivalry game with Auburn in November. The Tigers chewed the Dawgs up and spat them back out, ruining what was at the time a perfect season. But UGA would get revenge in the SEC title game, beating Auburn at its own game. Now it is the red and black in the Playoff, two wins from a title.
Read more about Georgia at SB Nation’s Dawg Sports.
No. 2 Oklahoma (11-1, 8-1 in Big 12)
When Bob Stoops retired in what was a late stage of the offseason, Oklahoma wasn’t necessarily written off, but the assumption certainly wasn’t that 34-year-old Lincoln Riley would have the Sooners booming all the way to a Playoff berth.
That was before everyone realized that QB Baker Mayfield would have a transcendent season meriting serious consideration for the Heisman Trophy.
Oklahoma has looked like one of the two or three most consistent teams in the country, and largely outlasted teams by lighting up the scoreboard with Mayfield as the gunslinging trigger man. Now they’re Playoff bound, just like we all expected right?
For more Oklahoma news, visit Crimson And Cream Machine.
This is the Rose’s second time as a Playoff semifinal.
The Rose Bowl hosts one of the Playoff games every three years, sharing a spot in the rotation with the Sugar Bowl. Those were the two Playoff semifinals in 2014, the inaugural year of the event. Those are arguably the two most prestigious classic bowl games, and they’re certainly among the most historic. That gives the Playoff a little extra flare in years when these games host. The Playoff semis are important any year, in any venue, but they’re a little cooler when they’re at the Rose and Sugar.
Last year’s Rose Bowl was a great one, with USC beating Penn State in a thriller behind a historic night by quarterback Sam Darnold. In the 2014 season’s Playoff semifinal, a Marcus Mariota-led Oregon beat Jameis Winston’s Florida State to claim a national title game berth. Ohio State won that game and the championship.
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