Before the Rose Bowl was built for the January 1, 1923 match, games were played in Pasadena's Tournament Park, approximately three miles southeast of the current Rose Bowl stadium near the campus of Caltech. Tournament Park was determined to be unsuitable for the larger and larger crowds gathering to watch the game and a new, permanent home for the game was commissioned.
For many years the Rose Bowl eschewed sponsorship, but for the 1999 Rose Bowl, the game became known as The Rose Bowl Game presented by AT&T. Unlike the other bowl games, the sponsor was not added to the title of the game, but instead as a presenter. In 2002 it was branded The Rose Bowl Game presented by PlayStation 2. From 2003 to 2010, after the agreement with Sony expired, the game has been presented by Citi. The most frequent Rose Bowl matchup is USC-Michigan, occurring for the eighth time in 2007, with USC holding a 6–2 advantage. (Including rare meetings outside the Rose Bowl, USC leads this series 6–4.) The next most frequent matchup is USC-Ohio State, occurring for the seventh time in 1985, with USC holding a 4–3 advantage.
