Top-ranked and undefeated Indiana will face Alabama in the 112th Rose Bowl Thursday in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup between one of college football’s worst programs of all time and one of the best.
The Hoosiers’ 715 losses in their 138 seasons were the most among Football Bowl Subdivision teams until Nov. 29 when Northwestern lost to Illinois, 20-13, for its 716th loss in 138 seasons.
Indiana’s .429 winning percentage matches Florida Atlantic for 11th-lowest all-time.
The Crimson Tide’s .734 winning percentage is second-highest behind Ohio State’s .737 and 985 victories third behind Michigan (1,022) and Ohio State (990).
Indiana’s rise to being among college football’s elite coincides with the hiring of Curt Cignetti as coach on Nov. 30, 2023, to replace Tom Allen, who was fired after posting a 33-49 record in seven full seasons and the 2016 Foster Farms Bowl, including a 3-9 mark in 2023.
The Hoosiers won their first 10 games of the 2024 season, their best start in their history. They finished the season with a school-record 11 victories, ending the campaign 11-2 following a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in a College Football Playoff first-round game.
With eventual Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza transferring in from California, Indiana was even better in 2025.
The Hoosiers earned the top ranking in both the College Football Playoff and Associated Press polls for the first time in school history and second Rose Bowl berth with a 13-0 record, including a 13-10 victory over previously undefeated, top-ranked and defending national champion Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game Dec. 6
The Big Ten championship was the first outright conference championship for Indiana since 1945. It shared the conference championship in 1967 with Minnesota and Purdue with 6-1 records, but Indiana got the Rose Bowl berth on a vote of the conference’s athletic directors over Minnesota because it had never previously appeared in the Rose Bowl.
Purdue was ineligible for the Rose Bowl berth under the Big Ten Conference’s “no repeat” rule then in effect. The Boilermakers defeated USC, 14-13, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 2, 1967.
The Hoosiers lost to USC, 14-3, on Jan. 1, 1968, in its only previous Rose Bowl appearance as O.J. Simpson ran for both Trojan touchdowns and was selected as the Player of the Game as USC won the national championship.
Ninth-seeded Alabama advanced to the Rose Bowl with a 34-24 victory over eighth-seeded Oklahoma in a first-round game at Norman, Oklahoma, Dec. 19, rallying from a 17-0 deficit.
The Crimson Tide will be making their third Rose Bowl appearance in five seasons, and first since a 27-20 loss to eventual national champion Michigan on New Year’s Day 2024 in Nick Saban’s final game as Alabama’s coach.
The Crimson Tide are 5-2-1 in the Rose Bowl.
This is the first meeting between the teams.
Rain is forecast to fall on the game for the first time since 1955.
“I don’t expect it to be a real critical factor in the game, and I don’t see it changing our game plan very much,” Cignetti said at a news conference Wednesday.
To Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, “You just gotta see what it is in the moment.”
Oddsmakers have made the Hoosiers a 7- to 7 1/2-point favorite. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Indiana a 71.4% chance of winning, the Crimson Tide a 28.8% chance.
The 1 p.m. game will be televised by ESPN and broadcast by ESPN LA 710AM. The game is starting one hour earlier than usual as part of schedule adjustments for all three New Year’s Day College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
The switch to 1 p.m. is “the result of a thoughtful collaboration” between the College Football Playoff, ESPN and organizers of the Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said in a statement.
“All three bowls shifting their start times allows us to place each game in an ideal window on New Year’s Day,” Clark said.
David Eads, chief executive officer of the Tournament of Roses, which conducts the game, said the organization “is confident that the one-hour time shift to the traditional kickoff time … will help to improve the overall timing for all playoff games on Jan. 1.”
“A mid-afternoon game has always been important to the tradition of The Granddaddy of Them All, but this small timing adjustment will not impact the Rose Bowl Game experience for our participants or attendees,” Eads said in a statement.
“Over the past five years the Rose Bowl Game has run long on several occasions, resulting in a delayed start for the following bowl game and ultimately it was important for us to be good partners with ESPN and the College Football Playoff and remain flexible for the betterment of college football and its postseason.”
The winner will face the winner of Thursday’s Orange Bowl between fourth-seeded Texas Tech and fifth-seeded Oregon in the Peach Bowl Jan. 9 for a berth in the national championship game, which will be played Jan. 19 in Miami Gardens, Florida.