Rose Bowl posts highest attendance in past 25 years

An epic game at an epic venue! #GoBlue

It’s already the most dramatic scene in all of college football and it was made that much more dramatic by the way the game ended.

We’re of course talking about the 2024 Rose Bowl, the granddaddy of them all, which took place on January 1 between the Michigan Wolverines and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

If you’re living under a rock, then let’s explain what made the game so hype: Michigan football, which hadn’t won a bowl game since 2015, was facing off against a Nick Saban-coached juggernaut in Alabama. A 1-seed, the Wolverines weren’t as highly thought of as their predecessors who were also national champions. Yet, despite nearly turning the ball over on the second play of the game, Michigan dominated the first half, only to let Alabama come back and take a late lead. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy orchestrated a late drive to tie the game, and in overtime, it was a vintage Blake Corum scamper for a touchdown and a defensive stand which rewarded the maize and blue with a win and a trip to the national championship game.

It was also the first time since 2007 that Michigan made a trip to Pasadena, making it extra special.

As it turns out, it was a bigger-than-usual Rose Bowl in many ways. The official Rose Bowl X (formerly Twitter) account reported this week that the 2024 game was the largest to watch it in-person since 1999.

What’s more, it was the most-watched bowl game, with 27.76 million tuning in to see the Wolverines beat the Crimson Tide in epic fashion.

With 19 million watching Michigan beat Ohio State, 10 million watching the Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa, and 9 million tuning into the runfest over Penn State, only Alabama rivaled the Wolverines’ overall viewership in 2023. Thus, it makes sense that when the two teams played against each other, the fan bases both packed the house.