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Ohio State to face Utah in Rose Bowl on New Year's Day

Published December 6, 2021 at 12:08 PM EST

[Angel DiBilio / Shutterstock] — The Rose Bowl and rose sign lit up in neon.

The Ohio State football team will play Utah in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

It's the second time in four years that the Buckeyes have played in the Rose Bowl and the first time since they beat Washington in Urban Meyer's final game as head coach.

Ohio State and Utah will meet for the first time in 35 years in the 108th edition of the Rose Bowl. Ohio State beat Utah 64-6 in 1986 at Ohio Stadium.

The 10-3 Utes secured their first appearance in the Granddaddy of Them All with a 38-10 victory over Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game. Utah beat Oregon twice this season. Oregon handed Ohio State its first loss of the season Sept. 11 in Ohio Stadium.

Ohio State Ryan Day also said he was caught a little off guard by the planned transfer of Quinn Ewers, a freshman quarterback who's the highest-rated recruit in OSU history.

"I think he was in a very unique situation for sure and you know, we wish him nothing but the best of luck moving forward, but boy there's just a lot that is going on right now in college football with a lot of other stuff," Day said.

Ewers graduated high school a year early to enroll at OSU this fall and already capitalized on Name, Image and Likeness endorsement rules.

Ohio State finished sixth in the final College Football Playoff rankings and missed out on the four-team playoff.

Cincinnati will play Alabama in the Cotton Bowl and Michigan will face Georgia in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

Fourth-seeded Cincinnati becomes the first team to break through the CFP’s glass ceiling and make college football’s final four from a non-Power Five conference.

The Bearcats won the American Athletic Conference and head into the postseason as the only unbeaten team in the country. Their reward will be a matchup with the defending national champions.

The Crimson Tide is in the playoff for the seventh time in its eight-year history.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.