Rose
Bowl has rivalry game
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Thanks to modern computer
technology, the Rose Bowl will be an old
fashioned New Year's Day matchup of Big
Ten and Pac-10 champs.
USC,
the odd team out in the BCS rankings, faces
Michigan in the Jan. 1 classic. The game
gets a big bonus because the Trojans are
top-ranked in the polls, with Michigan at
No. 4.
There was an unusual sight at the Rose Bowl
last New Year's Day -- some 10,000 empty
seats -- when Oklahoma beat Washington State.
This
year, fans are scrambling for tickets and
Rose Bowl officials predict high national
interest as well.
"It's
huge. We haven't had a Big Ten-Pac-10 game
here the last two years, and we're glad
to have our partners back in the bowl,"
Tournament of Roses president Mike Riffey
said. "We've had a relationship with
the Big Ten and Pac-10 since 1947, the longest-running
contract in college football."
Bids
on some tickets being hawked on the Internet
were topping $600 each. The face value is
$125.
"This
is the best game out there this bowl season,"
John Wangler, a former quarterback who led
Michigan to a 1981 Rose Bowl win over Washington,
said in Ann Arbor. "It has everything
that that bowl game has stood for: the best
of the Big Ten against the best of the Pac-10.
It's a classic matchup.
"That's
especially true because it's Michigan and
Southern Cal. Those are two great programs
with great tradition. These are two of the
top teams in the country, if not the two
top teams."
Anthony
Davis, a tailback for the Trojans when they
went 2-1 against Ohio State in three consecutive
appearances from 1973-75, said he's being
deluged with phone calls.
"I've had people asking me about tickets,
to come to tailgate parties, to sign autographs,"
Davis said. "It's great for the Rose
Bowl, with USC getting back to national
prominence and getting back to the traditional
game."
USC
came out on the top of two national polls,
but wound up in the Rose Bowl because it
finished third in the BCS rankings behind
Oklahoma and LSU. Those teams will play
for the BCS national title in the Jan. 4
Sugar Bowl. It is the first time in the
six-year history of the BCS -- and its computers
-- that the team voted No. 1 at the end
of the regular season by both writers and
coaches will not play in the BCS championship
game.
Davis
was left fuming by the Trojans' BCS snub,
saying the national champion should be decided
by a playoff.
"It
stinks," he said. "A computer
never tackled me."
Former
USC quarterback Pat Haden said he and others
who have watched the Rose Bowl "for
30 or 40 years" look forward to the
USC-Michigan matchup.
"It's
a terrific game. Every Dec. 31, I start
getting nervous, then Jan. 1 I wake up kind
of vitalized and vibrant," said Haden,
whose two-point conversion pass gave the
Trojans an 18-17 victory over Ohio State
in the 1975 Rose Bowl.
"There's
something about traditional games that create
special memories."
Tom
Slade, the Wolverines' quarterback in their
1972 Rose Bowl loss to Stanford, said he
thought USC was treated unfairly in the
BCS standings, "but what that means
is that the Rose Bowl is back to the classic
it was meant to be."
"These
are classic schools. Everyone knows know
their fight songs, and everyone knows what
their uniforms look like. That goes to the
old tradition, and that is huge," Slade
said in Michigan. "Their style of play
against ours fits the old mold of the Pac-10
and the Big Ten, though we pass better than
we used to. It's outstanding."
The
last two Rose Bowl games didn't match teams
from the Big Ten and Pac-10. Oklahoma beat
Washington State 34-14 last January in a
game that drew just 86,848, the lowest turnout
since 1944. In 2002, the Rose Bowl had its
turn in the BCS four-year rotation for the
national title game, and Miami won the championship
with a 34-14 victory over Nebraska.
"We've missed the Big Ten and Pac-10,"
Riffey said.
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