Why Ohio State isn't playing in the Rose Bowl

The Ohio State Buckeyes will miss out on some of the pageantry this year.

They're in the College Football Playoff, but they won't be playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

Instead, OSU gets the CFP quarterfinal action rolling a day earlier, taking on Miami in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.

It's not quite the same tradition at play for Ohio State, but it's a chance to advance to the national semifinals, and that's the most important part of all this to the Buckeyes.

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Why isn't Ohio State playing in the Rose Bowl?

Ohio State isn't playing in the Rose Bowl because the Indiana Hoosiers are ranked higher in the CFP rankings.

Indiana is the No. 1 overall seed after beating Ohio State in the Big Ten title game.

The CFP committee takes a number of things into account, but traditionally, the top Big Ten team plays in the Rose Bowl at the end of every season.

As long as the College Football Playoff keeps the traditional bowl games as host sites, that will likely be the case.

The Tournament of Roses website doesn't explicitly state that it's automatic for the top-ranked Big Ten team to play there. But it uses the word "traditionally" multiple times to explain its pattern of bringing the best Big Ten team to town.

So with some kind of conjunction between the CFP committee and the Tournament of Roses, it was determined Indiana would end up there, not Ohio State.

The Buckeyes won't mind the Cotton Bowl. As long as they're in the bracket, that's all that really matters.

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