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It's official:
Roses never smelled so sweet! Looking forward to seeing the Hawkeyes and Cardinal square-off on New Year's Day! pic.twitter.com/LJmMvsZotV
— Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) December 6, 2015
Iowa will take on Stanford in the 102nd Rose Bowl Game on January 1st, 2016. It will be Iowa's first trip to Pasadena, California, since they took on Mark Brunell and Washington in 1991. While we fretted away over Iowa and Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship, Stanford took care of business against USC and won the Pac-12. The Cardinal finished the regular season 11-2, with their only losses coming at Northwestern and Oregon. While Kevin Hogan is arguably the most well known name on the team, Christian McCaffrey is unquestionably the catalyst for Stanford. Last night he broke Barry Sanders' single season all purpose yardage record of 3,250 yards and has rushed for 1,847 yards and eight touchdowns on the year.
We'll be talking plenty about the game over the next few weeks. For now, just think about how far this team has come since January of 2015 and how a loss in the Big Ten Championship game somehow legitimized the Hawkeyes in the eyes of the nation.
The Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual kicks off at 4:10 PM CST and will be televised by ESPN.
Hold on, Pasadena, we're coming.
UPDATE (2:56 PM): Iowa will be wearing black.
.@RickLSmith Iowa as the highest ranked team will be in their dark jerseys. The Rose Bowl Game does not technically have a home team.
— Rose Bowl Game (@rosebowlgame) December 6, 2015