2006 Rose Bowl

2006 Rose Bowl

The 2006 Rose Bowl Game, played on January 4, 2006, was a football game that served as the national championship of the 2005–2006 Bowl Championship Series (BCS). It featured the only two unbeaten NCAA Division I-A teams: the defending Rose Bowl Champion and Big 12 Champion Texas Longhorns played Pac-10 titleholders and 2-time defending AP National Champions, the Southern California Trojans.

The game was a back-and-forth contest, and the Texas victory was not secured until the final nineteen seconds of the game. Vince Young, the Texas quarterback, and Michael Huff, a Texas safety, were named the offensive and defensive Rose Bowl Players Of The Game, respectively. Young's game winning touchdown run was named the fifth greatest play in college football history by ESPN. The game is widely considered one of the greatest games in the history of college football.

Texas' Rose Bowl win was the 800th victory in school history and the Longhorns ended the season ranked third in Division I history in both wins and winning percentage (.7143). It was only the third time that the two top-ranked teams had faced each other in the history of the Rose Bowl, with the 1963 Rose Bowl and 1969 Rose Bowl games being the others.

The 92nd annual occurrence of the Rose Bowl Game was played, as it is every year, at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California in the United States.

This was the final game ever called by longtime broadcaster Keith Jackson (as well as the final Rose Bowl to telecast under ABC Sports branding); the 2007 Rose Bowl would be an ESPN on ABC presentation.

On June 6, 2011, USC was forced to vacate its appearance in the national championship after an NCAA investigation into the football program declared Reggie Bush retroactively ineligible. So officially, the NCAA declared that Texas won this game unopposed.