PASADENA, Calif. (Michigan News Source) – The much anticipated 110th annual Rose Bowl game will be played at 5:00 p.m. EST today in Pasadena, California. It is a playoff semifinal that will determine who will move on to the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship game that will be played against either Washington or Texas on January 8th at the NRG Stadium in Houston.

Go Wolverines! Roll Tide!

The competitors at the Rose Bowl are the #1 ranked Big Ten Champion University of Michigan Wolverines and the #4 ranked SEC Champion Alabama Crimson Tide. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

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It’s an epic battle that will be coached by University of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh and Alabama’s Nick Saban (formerly a coach with U-M’s rival, Michigan State University).

How does U of M rank?

This year’s game marks U-M’s 21st appearance in a Rose Bowl game (8-12 overall record), having appeared in more Rose Bowls than any other Big Ten school. Alabama will be making their eighth trip to Pasadena (5-1 overall record with 1 tie).

This year’s Rose Bowl game will be the sixth meeting of Michigan and Alabama in total. The two winningest teams in college football history have 1,967 victories between them – with 1,002 victories for U-M and 965 for the University of Alabama. Four of their matchups have happened during the bowl season with the series tied at two wins apiece. A regular season game opener was also played in 2012 with Alabama beating U-M 41 to 14.

How does Alabama stack up?

Alabama has won 18 national championships. U-M has won 11.

Coach Saban boasts seven national titles as a head coach, the most in college football history. U-M’s Coach Harbaugh has won two.

The Rose Bowl, nicknamed “The Granddaddy of Them All” by broadcaster Keith Jackson, is expected to bring in a lot of fans and have a capacity crowd of about 92,000 people. Millions more will be watching the game on ESPN from homes, local bars and restaurants.

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Leading the teams are two dynamic quarterbacks – Alabama’s Redshirt Sophomore QB Jalen Milroe and U-M’s Junior QB J.J. McCarthy.

Milroe has played for Alabama for three seasons with 2023 being the year he took over QB duties after being a backup for Bryce Young. 21-year-old Milroe is 6’2” and 220 lbs.

Milroe’s 2023 stats for 12 games:

65.5 pct | 2,718 pass yds | 23 TDs/6 INTs | 468 rush yards | 12 rush TD | 38 sacks

McCarthy’s 2023 stats for 13 games:

McCarthy has played for U-M for three seasons and has been the starting QB since 2022. 20-year-old McCarthy is 6’3” and 202 lbs.

74.2 pct | 2,630 pass yds | 19 TDs/4 INTs | 146 rush yards | 3 rush TD | 18 sacks

According to FanDuel Sportsbook as of 7:02 a.m. ET, the money line is: Alabama +100 (bet $100 to win $100) | Michigan -120 (bet $120 to win $100). According to Forbes Betting, a moneyline bet is the simplest and most straightforward form of sports betting, where bettors choose one player or team to win straight up without a point spread involved. Spotsbookingwire.usatoday.com says that Alabama is predicted to win against Michigan 28 to 24.

Instead of the usual trash talk that sometimes happens before a game, both coaches are saying that it’s going to be a hard-fought game.

What are the coaches saying?

Coach Saban appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday discussing what his team was doing the game ahead. He said the players have been good in practice and executing well. He also said the players were acclimating to the time change and showing good energy and enthusiasm. He talked about there being no “receipt” of the year’s hard work unless “you finish the way you want to finish” and that the game will be a challenging game against a “really good team” who presents issues on “both sides of the ball.” Coach Saban talked about how the team needs to stay committed to what they need to do to be able to “play the way we need to play against a good team.”

On the other side of the gridiron will be Coach Harbaugh. He attended a press conference at Disneyland on Wednesday where both coaches were in a parade and had their photo taken together with Mickey Mouse. Coach Harbaugh said that his team was a single-minded group that’s “very focused on just taking care of business today and see if we can’t do the same tomorrow.” He said that a win would take an effort by everybody – offense, defense, special teams and the kicking game – and that his team is locked in, focused and very prepared.

About his competitor, Coach Harbaugh said, “Been studying Alabama, they’re really good. So good. I mean, they could clear run us out of the stadium. And we’re good, too. We’ve got the ability to really do the same to them or the other possibility is it could be one heck of a football game. And I kind of think that’s the way it’s gonna go.” He added that it’s gonna be a “tough” game with two great teams facing off. It’s “as good as it gets,” he said.