This year’s Rose Bowl isn’t among the College Football Playoff, but it could feature a matchup between teams that narrowly missed the Final Four.
Now that the CFP picture is fully clear—Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma are all but sure bets to be the Final Four following conference championship weekend—the Rose Bowl matchup also comes into better focus.
No. 7 Stanford will assuredly be the Pac-12 representative after claiming the conference championship with a 41-22 win over No. 20 USC in the title game Saturday.
But the Cardinal's opponent remains tricky to decipher.
Rose Bowl chairman Scott Jenkins offered clarity, albeit only slightly, on the criteria with which the committee will make its selection, per Heather Dinich of ESPN.