A Texas fan looks ahead to the Rose Bowl during Texas' win in the Big 12 Championship game.

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The 2006 Rose Bowl Game was the final game and national championship of the 2005-2006 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and the 92nd Rose Bowl Game. more...

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The game was played on January 4, 2006, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, matching the only two unbeaten NCAA Division I-A squads: Big 12 champion and defending Rose Bowl champs Texas and defending national champion and Pac-10 titleholder Southern California. Although the game saw a back-and-forth contest, it was ultimately won by the 2005 Texas Longhorns, 41-38. UT's Vince Young was the game's MVP. Texas's Rose Bowl win was the 800th victory in school history. The Longhorns ended the season ranked third in the all-time list of both total wins and winning percentage (.7143).

Pre-game buildup

Southern California entered the game with a 34-game winning streak, the longest active streak in Division I-A, having won the 2004 BCS Championship and having been named 2003 National Champions by the Associated Press; Texas brought the second-longest active streak, having won 19 straight games, and also entered as Rose Bowl defending champion, having defeated Michigan in the 2005 Rose Bowl. Their combined 53-game win streak was an NCAA record for teams playing each other. The game was also the first to have matched teams ranked first and second in every iteration of the BCS standings. This was Texas's second trip to the Rose Bowl in two years (and second trip in the history of UT football).

A few weeks before the game, USC's Reggie Bush won the Heisman trophy ahead of second-place finisher Vince Young. Bush had the second highest number of first place votes in Heisman history (O.J. Simpson) and the highest percentage of first place votes, while Young had a record number of second place votes. Bush's 933-point margin of victory was the 17th highest in the history of the Heisman voting. The other finalist was USC's Matt Leinart, who had won the Heisman trophy in 2004. This meant that the Rose Bowl would mark the first time that two Heisman trophy winners had ever played in the same backfield.

The 2006 Rose Bowl had been called the most-anticipated matchup in college football history. Prior to the game, some commentators had postulated that the 2005 USC team was one of the best college football teams of all time, if not the best. ESPN analysts were virtually unanimous in their declaration of the 2005 USC Trojans as the best offense in the history of college football, despite the fact that they did not lead the nation in points scored (Texas did). Lee Corso was one of the rare analysts who said that Texas was a better team and that they were going to win. ESPN analysts Mark May and Kirk Herbstreit declared, before the 2006 Rose Bowl had even been played, that the 2005 USC Trojans were the 2nd best college football team of the past 50 years (May placed them behind only the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers; Herbstreit behind only the 2001 Miami Hurricanes). This led to Texas fans at the Rose Bowl mockingly chanting "Best...Team...Ever" during the post-game celebration. Stewart Mandell of Sports Illustrated later observed, "ESPN spent the better part of Christmas season comparing that Trojans squad to some of the most acclaimed teams of all time only to find out that they weren’t even the best team that season."