COLUMBUS — A dominating win over a Top 4 team in their regular season finale and a second straight Big Ten championship was not enough to vault the Buckeyes into the College Football Playoff.
The playoff committee announced Sunday that top-ranked Alabama would play No. 4 Oklahoma in one semifinal while No. 2 Clemson will play No. 3 Notre Dame in the other.
With a 45-24 win over Northwestern in the Big Ten title game Saturday night, Ohio State improved to 12-1 with their fifth straight win, but it was not be enough to overtake either Oklahoma or No. 5 Georgia for a national semifinal berth.
Instead, they will travel to the Rose Bowl where they will play Pac 12 champion Washington on Jan. 1 (5:00 p.m./ESPN).
This will mark the Buckeyes’ 15th Rose Bowl appearance, though the first for coach Urban Meyer.
“I remember watching the Rose Bowl and watching the Rose Bowl Parade, and Woody Hayes and the great players of the Buckeyes going out there…I got that visual, USC and Ohio State playing in the Rose Bowl as a kid growing up, and I’m sure everybody in Ohio does,” he told reporters at a news conference after the announcement.
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Ohio State has not appeared in the “granddaddy of them all” since 2010. The Buckeyes own a 7-7 all-time record at the Rose Bowl, but has won in each of its last two appearances, a 26-17 victory against Oregon in 2010 and a 20-17 win over Arizona State in 1997.
Ohio State receives approximately 22,000 tickets for the game, available for $180 including service charge, at a Department of Athletics website.
Dwayne Haskins added five more touchdown passes to his single-season record and Ohio State held off a second-half charge from No. 21 Northwestern to claim its second straight Big Ten championship and their third title in five years.
Haskins finished 34 of 41 with 499 yards.
The Wildcats pulled within 31-24 with 10 ½ minutes remaining before Haskins tossed a pair of scoring strikes.
Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma also won their conference championships Saturday while Notre Dame was idle. Georgia lost to the Crimson Tide.