The Rose Bowl isn’t the National Championship, but playing in the oldest, most prestigious bowl is a tradition that every Big Ten and Pac-10 team dreams of.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are one win away from realizing that dream, but must first knock off the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday. An OSU win will cement a record fifth consecutive conference title and the Buckeyes will certainly smell the roses.

OSU Coach Jim Tressel knows just how much the game means. He said that on Saturday, both teams will know what will be on the line.

“I think it would be hard if you have the opportunity to earn a chance to play in that bowl game to minimize the excitement of that,” Tressel said. “We haven’t gone in a long time. It’s an important thing to Ohio State. It’s an important thing to Iowa. I’m not sure what year was the last time they went, but it’s a big deal.”

“The Granddaddy of Them All,” as the Rose Bowl has come to be known, is a spectacle filled with tradition, a parade and a fierce inter-conference rivalry.

The Big Ten and Pac-10 send their best teams to play on Jan. 1, but surprisingly, the Rose Bowl always seems to escape the Buckeyes’ grasp. 

Ohio State has only played in the Rose Bowl three times in the last 30 years. Their last appearance in 1997 was an instant classic with the Buckeyes winning on a late touchdown against previously undefeated Arizona State.

Since the inception of the Bowl Championship Series in 1998, the Buckeyes would have sent three teams to the prestigious bowl: 2002, 2006 and 2007 would have all been Rose Bowl years, but instead, OSU played for a national championship.

In 2007, OSU lost to Illinois in the penultimate game of the season. The following week, after a win over Michigan and another Big Ten title, the roses were brought out and the Buckeyes celebrated what was believed to be a bid to the big game.

However, due to several upsets the Buckeyes climbed from No. 7 to No. 1 without playing another game and instead went to the National Championship against LSU.

“We were real excited to win another Big Ten championship and get the chance to go to the Rose Bowl,” senior tight end Jake Ballard said about the 2007 victory. “It was thrilling, we hadn’t been to the Rose Bowl in 10, now 12 years. We were just looking forward to going.”

The BCS title game might have more at stake, but as a Big Ten school, the Rose Bowl is what a team plays for. Its tradition and pageantry cannot be rivaled. Tressel even got a bit nostalgic when talking about New Year’s Day’s most sacred game.

“Jan. 1 in our house, two black-and-white TVs set up side by side, that old 30-pot coffee … my dad never got off the couch, man, we were taking him coffee and switching stations. I mean, that was — shoot, you were living on Jan. 1,” Tressel said with a smile. “That was it for the year, by the way.”

Recently, the Rose Bowl hasn’t been a proud event for the Big Ten. The conference representative has been blown out by USC the last three years and hasn’t won the bowl since 2000.

“The Rose Bowl is everything, it is where college football is at; … what it’s all about,” Ballard said. “Everybody wants to go there, everyone wants to play in that game. Ohio State has a long history in the Rose Bowl and we haven’t been back in some time. To go out there our senior year and to take care of business and come back with a Rose Bowl victory would be something great for Ohio State.”

It would also benefit the Big Ten as a whole, Ballard said, because of their lack of big bowl wins the last several years.

Ohio State could kill two birds with one stone Jan. 1. Making up for its past three BCS bowl losses, but also getting a big win for a conference that has struggled recently in postseason play.

To do that, the Buckeyes will have to beat Iowa first.