Three wins to a national title.
Every game from here out is the biggest in IU football history.
In a national quarterfinal matchup, the No. 1 Hoosiers (13-0) will face No. 9 Alabama (11-3) on Thursday, Jan. 1 at 4 p.m. ET at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (ESPN). The game marks the first ever meeting of these programs.
Indiana and Alabama could not have more different histories.
Alabama claims 18 national titles and 30 conference championships, while IU has never won a national title and can claim just three league titles. Alabama has the third-most wins in college football history, while the Hoosiers have the second-most losses.
But while the game is a historical mismatch, Indiana will take the field as the favorite.
Most sports books have IU as a 6.5 to 7-point favorite over the Crimson Tide in The Rose Bowl.
In the analytical models, ESPN’s Football Power Index gives No. 1 Indiana a 71.4% chance to beat No. 8 Alabama. ESPN’s SP+ likes No. 2 Indiana over No. 15 Alabama by 13.1 points.
Alabama played five games against teams currently ranked in the CFP Top-25: Two games against Georgia and Oklahoma, and a game against Vanderbilt. The Tide went 3-2 in those games.
FPI says Alabama played the sixth-hardest schedule this season, while IU played the 28th most difficult. Meanwhile IU has the No. 1 strength of record, and Alabama No. 10.
The lone common opponent for Indiana and Alabama is Wisconsin, a team both the Hoosiers and Crimson Tide beat on their respective home fields by 24 points.
Alabama is led by head coach Kalen DeBoer, who is in his second season in charge in Tuscaloosa. DeBoer is 20-7 in his two seasons at Alabama, and 124-19 overall as a head coach. He and former IU quarterback Michael Penix, Jr. led Washington to the national championship game in 2023.
DeBoer is one of several members of the Alabama coaching staff who were once coaches at Indiana.
DeBoer was the IU offensive coordinator in 2019. Crimson Tide quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan was at IU from 2017-2021 and was offensive coordinator the last two years. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack was at IU from 2018-2020 and defensive coordinator the last two years. Defensive backs coach Jason Jones was the IU safeties coach from 2020-2022. And strength coach David Ballou is an IU alumnus and was the IU strength coach from 2018-2020.
Alabama is No. 39 nationally in scoring offense, putting up 31.4 points per contest. Indiana is the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense at 10.8 points allowed per game.
The Crimson Tide are No. 13 in scoring defense, allowing just 17.9 an outing. IU is No. 4 in scoring offense at 41.9 points per contest. The most points scored by any team against Alabama this season was 31 by Florida State in a season-opening loss.
6-foot-2 junior quarterback Ty Simpson has completed 64.1 % of his throws for 3,500 yards, with 28 touchdowns and just five interceptions. Including sacks, he has rushed for just 76 yards and two touchdowns this season.
PFF grades Alabama as having the No. 31 offense, the No. 14 defense, and the No. 22 special teams in the country.
The weather shouldn’t be a factor in this game. Rain is rare in Southern California this time of year, and the temperature should be pleasant. The current long-term forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a high of 67 degrees. We’ll check back on this as the game gets closer.
We will of course have much more on this game in the days to come.
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In the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers (13-0) will play the No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide (11-3) in the Rose Bowl, starting at 4 p.m. ET in Pasadena, California. Indiana is favored by 7 points.
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The Alabama Crimson Tide are headed back to the Rose Bowl for the College Football Playoff.
One hundred years after Alabama football’s first appearance in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 1926, the Tide will face No. 1 Indiana (13-0) in the CFP quarterfinals in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.
Alabama (11-3) rallied from a 17-0 first-half deficit to win its first-round playoff game, 34-24, against the Oklahoma Sooners (10-3) Friday night at Memorial Stadium in Norman.
Ty Simpson threw two touchdown passes to freshman receiver Lotzeir Brooks, cornerback Zabien Brown had a 50-yard interception return for touchdown, and Daniel Hill capped the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run as the Tide closed the game by out-scoring Oklahoma 34-7 over the final 36:52.
Conor Talty added two clutch field goals in Alabama’s win, its 10th victory overall in the College Football Playoff since 2014, and its first since the Crimson Tide defeated the Cincinnati Bearcats, 27-6, in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve 2021.
After Alabama’s rally, Tide players did some celebrating on the Sooners’ field.
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NORMAN, Oklahoma — The stage was set for Oklahoma. Heck, the Sooners earned the right to set it. This was supposed to be the ushering in of a new era of postseason football for the No. 8 team in the country that had won 10 games in what was one of the toughest schedules this year.
No. 9 Alabama was even one of those teams that Oklahoma beat on its way to earning this spot. And Saturday night, all was going well for the Sooners. It was going so well, in fact, that after the first quarter, some Oklahoma fans might’ve peeked at flights and hotel rates for the Rose Bowl from inside Memorial Stadium.
And then the Alabama Crimson Tide curled and rolled the Sooners, 34-24, and are headed to Pasadena. After opening with 17 unanswered points, Oklahoma collapsed under the weight of that wave, becoming the only team in College Football Playoff history to blow a 17-point lead. And now, the Sooners have done it twice — before Saturday, in 2018 against Georgia.
[Best Teams in the College Football Playoff Era: Creating the Ultimate 12-team CFP]
Here are my takeaways from Alabama’s College Football Playoff first-round victory against Oklahoma on Saturday:
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Zabien Brown #2 of the Alabama Crimson Tide stiff-arms John Mateer #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners during the second quarter during the 2025 College Football Playoff first-round game on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson is an avid reader and listener of college football news. Following the largest comeback win in Alabama postseason history, Simpson took a moment to facetiously thank media members for choosing Oklahoma to win on Saturday night.
“I guess we can thank you guys for that,” an emboldened Simpson said. “You guys kind of wrote us off in a sort of way. So I appreciate that.”
After building a three-score lead, the Sooners watched the Crimson Tide recover a fumbled punt, pick off Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer and return it 50 yards to the end zone — all before their First Team All-American kicker Tate Sandell missed not one but two field goals in the final minutes to solidify the worst collapse in College Football Playoff history.
Meanwhile, the Alabama Crimson Tide will prepare to take on No. 1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl for the CFP quarterfinal game. This team that punches back and played its best football with its back against the wall is one that the Hoosiers must prepare for on New Year’s Day.
[College Football Playoff Predictions: First-Round Winners to The National Champion]
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: John Mateer #10 of the Oklahoma Sooners is hit by Deontae Lawson #0 of the Alabama Crimson Tide during the first quarter during the College Football Playoff first-round game on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
The Crimson Tide began down — just like they did against Georgia in the SEC championship game. But the last three quarters of Saturday’s game demonstrated Alabama to be just who it says it is: the kind of team that can open with a loss to a bad Florida State and also be the first team in six years to walk into Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, and come out with a win.
DeBoer’s task now is to find a way to make certain that the team that showed up at Georgia earlier this season and at Oklahoma in the first round is the same one against the Hoosiers. Linebacker Deontae Lawson said that’s his job too. But Bama’s best trait isn’t one that shows itself until it’s in a fight for its life.
“Man, I just think we’re a resilient team,” Lawson said. “And even though we were down 17-0, we didn’t really look at the scoreboard. Coach DeBoer always says, ‘Keep playing the game. The game will come back to you.’ … We just keep fighting.”
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Head coach Brent Venables of the Oklahoma Sooners speaks to an official during the fourth quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide on December 19, 2025. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
Let’s look at the bigger ones:
These are blunders. Errors that aren’t forced but self-inflicted. It’s difficult to win any game with those kinds of mistakes on your drive chart. It’s nearly impossible in a game of this magnitude, against a team as talented and as resilient as the Crimson Tide.
NORMAN, OKLAHOMA: Keon Keeley #31 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrates after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners in the College Football Playoff first-round game. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Oklahoma usually plays 50 Cent’s “Many Men” before the start of the fourth quarter. In an attempt to make a statement for its first CFP game at Owen Field, the Sooners brought the rapper himself out onto the field to perform the song for fans in a Hard to Kill Hoodie.
“I didn’t know it was live,” DeBoer said.
“I didn’t know who 50 Cent was,” Simpson said, “but I know that song.”
“We play that song at practice on Fridays,” Lawson said.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
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