The USC Trojans and the Tulane Green Wave meet in the 2023 Cotton Bowl on January 2, 2023. This isn’t a playoff game, but the Cotton Bowl is one of the oldest and most prestigious bowl games around.
The Cotton Bowl is the fifth-oldest bowl game, the fourth-oldest major bowl game. The Rose Bowl is, of course, the oldest bowl game. The Sugar, Orange, and Sun Bowls all began on January 1, 1935. The Sun Bowl moved off the New Year’s Day slot in the course of time, but the Cotton Bowl became the fourth major January 1 bowl game when it debuted in 1937. All four games remained top-tier fixtures in the sport through the 1994 season. In 1995, the Southwest Conference died, giving way to the Big 12 and lower-level splinter conferences in subsequent years. The Cotton Bowl lost its place of prominence for nearly two decades, but it regained elite status in 2014 with the creation of the New Year’s Six bowl structure.
Enjoy these Cotton Bowl photos as part of our historical appreciation of this New Year’s Day classic: