Fwiw
The Rose Bowl is an amazing event to witness in person, normally beautiful weather in Pasadena in early January and 100,000 plus fans split fairly evenly between the two teams involved rooting for what are usually ecellent football teams. The atmosphere is great also. I have only been to one Rose Bowl back in the early 1980s but had a great time.
Tickets are actually available to the general public by lottery they are so popular.
The lessor bowls reward teams for winning seasons and raise money for the sponsors and the schools and their conferences.
College football is a huge moneymaker for the NCAA and the bowl games are a big part of that. My advice to fans who only care about the BCS Championship Game is to just ignore the other bowl games like you would a minor league baseball game.
The game is not nearly one sided for the Pac10 team as one might think.
Date Played Winning Team Losing Team
January 1, 1997 Ohio State 20 Arizona State 17
January 1, 1998 Michigan 21 Washington State 16
January 1, 1999 Wisconsin 38 UCLA 31
January 1, 2000 Wisconsin 17 Stanford 9
January 1, 2001 Washington 34 Purdue 24
January 3, 2002* Miami (FL) 37 Nebraska 14
January 1, 2003 Oklahoma 34 Washington State 14
January 1, 2004 Southern California 28 Michigan 14
January 1, 2005 Texas 38 Michigan 37
January 4, 2006* Texas 41 Southern California 38
January 1, 2007 Southern California 32 Michigan 18
January 1st 2008 Southern California 49 Illinois 17
wil.