PASADENA, Calif. — The next stop on No. 1 Indiana's storybook journey to the top of college football is nothing less than the most fabled bowl venue in the sport.
The Big Ten champion Hoosiers (13-0) are headed to their first Rose Bowl in 58 years to face Oklahoma or Alabama on New Year's Day, marking another remarkable milestone in their transformation under coach Curt Cignetti.
Indiana secured the No. 1 seed in the CFP and formally received its invitation Sunday to the 112th edition of the Granddaddy of Them All, which doubles as a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. The Hoosiers will learn the identity of their blue-blood opponent after the eighth-seeded Sooners (10-2) host the ninth-seeded Crimson Tide (10-3) on Dec. 19 in a rematch of Oklahoma’s 23-21 victory over Alabama last month.
“We’ve got a long time to prepare, and two heavyweight teams are going to slug it out, and we’ll find out on the 19th who our opponent will be," Cignetti said.
The announcement capped a monumental weekend for Indiana, which won its first Big Ten title since 1967 by beating defending national champion Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday night. The Hoosiers then ascended to the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 for the first time.
“Obviously it’s the Granddaddy of Them All, with a lot of great tradition involving the Big Ten, so we’re excited about that,” Cignetti said. “But at the end of the day it’s a football game, and we’ll approach it like every other game, including last night’s game. We’ll be looking forward to getting out there.”
Indiana is headed to the Rose Bowl for only the second time. The Hoosiers’ previous Big Ten championship team was in Pasadena on Jan. 1, 1968, but lost 14-3 to national champion Southern California.
The current Hoosiers, led by Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Fernando Mendoza, have reached unprecedented heights ever since the miracle-working Cignetti took over what was once the losingest program in the sport. His teams have produced the first two double-digit win seasons in school history in his first two years on campus.
Indiana made the playoff as the 10th seed last season, going 11-1 with only a road loss to Ohio State. The Hoosiers traveled to Notre Dame for the opening round and lost 27-17 in a highly anticipated in-state matchup.
“If you use failure properly, you’re going to come back stronger,” Cignetti said of that game.
While the Hoosiers haven't played in the Rose Bowl game in generations, many members of the current team visited the famed Arroyo Seco in September 2024. Indiana trounced UCLA 42-13 at the Rose Bowl in the first road game of Cignetti's tenure, producing the first attention-grabbing result in what has grown into one of the most incredible success stories in college football history.
Cignetti also went to Pasadena when he was Nick Saban's wide receivers coach at Alabama. The Crimson Tide won their first national championship under Saban on Jan. 7, 2010, by beating Texas 37-21 at the Rose Bowl to complete a 14-0 season.
The top seed has won four of the last six CFP titles, but Cignetti isn't thinking beyond Indiana's historic trip to Pasadena. The Hoosiers have never faced Alabama in both programs' long histories, while the Hoosiers and the Sooners have met just once — back in 1928.
Oklahoma earned the right to host a first-round matchup in its first CFP appearance under coach Brent Venables. He had two losing records in his first three seasons after replacing Lincoln Riley, whose Sooners made four straight CFP appearances.
“I know for some people, the debate has been ... maybe we don’t belong in the playoffs,” Venables said. “But we’re here. I know a lot of teams were hoping they got matched up with Oklahoma potentially in the playoffs. Our focus, our energy, our detail is to be able to play for a championship, no matter how crazy that might seem to everybody else. Our team believes we have everything we need to do so.”
After losing to sixth-seeded Ole Miss at home on Oct. 25, the Sooners won their final four games, beating three ranked teams — including the Crimson Tide, who gave up 17 points off three turnovers in Norman while outgaining the Sooners 406-212.
“We didn’t take care of the ball the way we normally do, and we lost the turnover margin,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer told ESPN on Sunday. “That’s a credit to them. We missed on a couple of opportunities that really could have changed the outcome in a two-point loss.”
After missing the playoff last season in DeBoer's first year in charge, Alabama secured the No. 9 CFP seed despite its three losses, including a 28-7 setback to Georgia in the SEC championship game. The Crimson Tide got in based on its strength of schedule to help overcome its three losses, including the season-opener to a Florida State team that finished 5-7.
“This is what you’re looking for,” DeBoer said. “This is what you want, and this is what our guys worked so hard for.”
