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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/SparkMaster360 on 2026-04-10 23:28:50+00:00.

No. 1 USC vs No. 2 Texas in the 2006 Rose Bowl is widely panned considered as the greatest college football game ever played and it’s easy to see why.

  • It was a national championship championship between undefeated teams

  • Those undefeated teams went wire to wire as 1 and 2 in the polls

  • USC was on a 34 game winning streak, while Texas was on their own 19 game winning streak

  • USC was the (two time?) defending national champion, playing the defending Rose Bowl champion in Texas

  • The game itself was set a month before it kicked off, allowing for the hype to just build

  • The Rose Bowl as a venue is legendary

  • Vince

  • Fucking

  • Young

  • Playing against the current Heisman Reggie Bush, and the prior year’s Heisman in Matt Leinart

  • Those 3 all finished top 3 in the Heisman voting the current year.

  • Incredible back and forth game, capped off by Texas coming back down 2 scores in the 4th.

  • Keith Jackson’s last game

  • “4th and 5, the national championship on the line right here…”

It’s weird to say that for a sport that keeps changing and gaining traction, but I don’t think this single game can be topped.

The hype for this game alone is almost impossible to replicate, given the title game is only set a week in advance now. It’s also not realistic to have teams earn a winning streak that long simultaneously (I think the best you could do next year is 31 wins in a row Indiana vs 25ish wins in a row Notre Dame, and that requires both to go undefeated through to the championship).

The only game I can think of recently that’s in the same universe as this one was Indiana vs OSU in the B1G Championship, and even then it was “only” a conference championship between 1 and 2.

Curious what you all think though. Will the 2006 Rose Bowl ever be beaten?