Watch Rose Bowl Live Online: Historic Oregon Vs. Florida State Playoff Game — Streaming Video
The 2015 Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, pits undefeated Florida State against 12-1 Oregon in the first playoff game in Division I — now called Football Bowl Subdivision — history, and college football fans as well as recovering New Year’s Eve revelers can watch the game live online thanks to the WatchESPN streaming video app.
Florida State and Oregon, two college football powerhouses, have never met before, giving this year’s Rose Bowl even greater historic significance.
The Rose Bowl is known as the “Grandaddy of All Bowl Games,” because with the first Rose Bowl game played in 1902, this is the one that started the ongoing tradition of New Year’s Day college football bowl games.
The result of that first-ever Rose Bowl was a bit of letdown, with Michigan easily defeating Stanford 49-0. But with a spot in the NCAA National Championship Game on the line, the 2015 Rose Bowl should be a much more exciting affair.
But the game will be historic — and thrilling — for another reason as well. With a quarterback matchup of 2014 Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota of Oregon on one side of the ball and 2013 Heisman winner Jameis Winston on the other, the matchup will mark only the third time in college football postseason history that the two most recent Heisman winners have matched up.
The first Heisman matchup came in 2005 when then-current trophy winner Matt Leinart of USC outdueled the 2004 winner, Oklahoma’s Jason White, in a 55-19 USC victory to win the BCS National Championship Game.
Heisman winners faced off once again in the 2009 BCS National Championship. Tim Tebow, winner of the 2007 trophy, led his Florida Gators to a 24-14 triumph over Oklahoma, quarterbacked by 2008 Heisman winner Sam Bradford.
This time, one of the two Heisman winners already has a national championship under his belt, as Winston led the Seminoles to what turned out to be the final BCS National Championship in his 2013 Heisman year.
With this year’s switch to the College Football Playoff series, a victory in the Rose Bowl will guarantee the winner only a shot at the national title. Surviving the Rose Bowl means facing the winner of the Sugar Bowl between Alabama and Ohio State, played later on New Year’s Day in the New Orleans Superdome, in the National Championship final January 12 in Arlington, Texas.
The Rose Bowl will air only on ESPN and WatchESPN this year, as has been the case since 2011, so a cable subscription is necessary to see the game.
Rose Bowl coverage kicks off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (1:30 pm Pacific) on ESPN. To watch live online, go to the WatchESPN site at this link, and enter login credentials from a cable provider. To watch live streaming video on a smartphone or tablet, download the WatchESPN app. WatchESPN is also available for set-top internet devices such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google Chromecast.
