The Bowl Game Today: What You Didn’t Know

 

ROSE BOWL GAME 2018 NOTES: Georgia Versus Oklahoma

Today’s playoff semifinal game between No. 2 Oklahoma (12-1) and No. 3 Georgia (12-1) features a number of newsworthy notes to remember:

1. This is the first –ever meeting between the two schools, despite being located just 799 miles apart.
2. Both teams are 1-0 in the Rose Bowl. Georgia beat UCLA 9-0 in 1943 while Oklahoma came out on top against Washington State, 34-14, in 2003.
3. Georgia will tie Nebraska for the fourth-most bowl games played with 53 while Oklahoma is playing in its 51
4. Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield is the nation’s leader in passing efficiency (203.8 rating). To date, there has been one rating over 200 in the 34 bowl games this year.
5. The semifinal gam matches the NCAA’s seventh all-time winning program (Oklahoma), 884 wins) against the 11^th (Georgia, 807). Although the Sooners with 644 wins have the most in the nation in the post-World War II ear (Georgia has (551).
6. Oklahoma has two players from the state of Georgia (offensive lineman Orlando Brown and running back Trey Sermon), while University of Georgia has none from Oklahoma.
7. This is the 104^th Rose Bowl Game. Pasadena hosted four BCS Championship games (2002-06-10-14) and this is the second time it is hosting a College Football Playoff Semifinal (the first was after the 2014) season. The bowls with the next most games have been the Orange and Sugar bowls with 83 each and then the Sun (82) and Cotton (81).
8. Very few American sporting events are older than the Rose Bowl; these woild include the triple crown horse races, the Belmont Stakes (149 events), the Kentucky Derby (143) and the Prinkness (142), as well as the World Series (113).
9. There have been 16 Rose Bowl games not play on January 1: 14 have taken place on January 2 and one each on January 3 and January 4. The Pac-12 ahs had a team play in all games on the 2^nd (going 8-5-1) with Big 10 schools 5-5 on the date.
10. The Rose Bowl is one of 14 bowls yet to have an overtime game.
11. In what is considered the modern era of college football (post-World War II), there have been just three shutouts in Rose Bowl Game history.
12. Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield will become the fourth Heisman Trophy winning quarterback to play in a Rose Bowl game in the year he won the award, the sixth overall.
13. Which school is further south? It is Georgia, but not by much. Athens is located at 33.9519 degrees north latitude, while Norman is at 35.2226, which equates to about 86 miles. Norman is higher at 1,171 feet in elevation compared to 636 for Athens.

Bill Glazier | SouthPasadenan.com | Officially Credentialed Rose Bowl Game Coverage

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