It's interesting to try and measure how long it takes nostalgia to catch up with reality.
I love the Rose Bowl, at least as an abstract concept, in large part because one of my formative Ohio State football memories as a kid was watching Joe Germaine and the rest of the Buckeyes coming through in the clutch against Jake Plummer and Arizona State.
Before that last drive, my dad bet me five bucks that Ohio State wouldn't be able to pull off the victory, which I refused (I was 11, and five bucks was like two comic books. No way in hell was I going risk that kind of cash). And, of course, against that beautiful backdrop and in that historic stadium, that's exactly what they did. The 1997 Rose Bowl remains one of the greatest games in the century-old history of the bowl, and it's part of what hooked me on OSU football.
A lot of Ohio State fans probably have a similar memory of the Rose Bowl; after all, given that for a long time it was literally the only bowl the Buckeyes could attend, it isn't a surprise that it's also the bowl that they've appeared in the most. The upcoming tilt against Utah will be the 16th time Ohio State has made the trip to Pasadena, and for some (okay, me) it feels like this game has the least amount of hype since the last one, just a few years ago.
You're forgiven if you forgot that on January 1st, 2019 the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Washington Huskies by a score of 28-23, in Urban Meyer's last game as head coach. Mostly because in addition to the San Gabriel mountains, the backdrop to that game was an extremely salty Ohio State team that wasn't selected for the College Football Playoff.
From OhioStateBuckeyes.com
And really, that's a big part of why the mystique of the Rose Bowl simply isn't as big of a part of college football anymore. For nearly 20 years now, the Rose Bowl has been subject to the whims of various attempts to decide a true national champion in college football, either through the BCS or the CFP, with the tacit acknowledgement that that goal was more important than Keith Jackson's sonorous intonation transporting us a century back in time.
That picture of Beanie Wells? He and the rest of his team in 2007 ended up trading that Rose for a shot at the BCS Championship. Once the Big Ten and the Pac-12 ceded that unique relationship to each other and the sport of college football, the Rose Bowl stopped being an end unto itself. The pageantry and history (and the viewership) isn't going to go away, but as a practical matter some years the Rose Bowl carries just as much weight as the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. And nostalgia can only keep players from opting out of an exhibition game for so long, so that's why (if you're still doggedly invested in the 2021 Ohio State football season) you might be waiting with bated breath to see who will actually play in the thing.
“I feel like that means something, just one last game with your brothers means a lot. And that’s a memory you’re gonna take forever,” [Tyreke] Smith said. “So just to go out with a win, a good, solid win, just means a lot.”
Calling the Granddaddy Of Them All a "good, solid win" feels like damning with faint praise, but it makes sense. This was a Buckeye team that had national championship aspirations, and the Rose Bowl isn't a part of that this season. If Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson (among others) ultimately decide to protect their health and earning potential in lieu of playing in even the Rose Bowl, it's extremely hard to find legitimate fault with that given what the game currently means in a year that it isn't part of the College Football Playoff.
Which, ultimately, is why I think there's so much consternation about the push and pull of history as it pertains to the Rose Bowl. We're trying to replace one mythology with another, and right now the College Football Playoff can't possibly hope to compete with something with a century of built-in tradition.
Even so, as long as Ohio State remains a perennial threat to win a national championship (which I imagine most Buckeye fans want), the Rose Bowl will continue to play second fiddle to a giant tube of lipstick made out of silver and gold.
