The Ohio State Buckeyes began the 1973 season ranked third and went undefeated, with a tie. They were led by tailback Archie Griffin on offense and a defense that held its opponents to less than 100 yards per game of total offense. Going into the showdown at #4 Michigan, they had risen to #1 by outscoring their first nine opponents 361–33, including three straight shutouts of Northwestern, Illinois, and Michigan State. The Buckeyes and Wolverines then battled to a 10–10 tie, making it uncertain who would win the vote among Big Ten athletic directors to determine the league's Rose Bowl representative. Although the Big Ten had done away with its "no repeat" rule a year earlier, many projected that Michigan would win the vote since Ohio State had gone to Pasadena the prior year. But Michigan starting quarterbackDennis Franklin had broken his collarbone late in the Ohio State game; perhaps influenced by the injury, the athletic directors voted to send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl. Michigan head coachBo Schembechler called it a gross injustice.
USC
USC was the defending national champion and began the season ranked first. But a 7–7 tie vs. Oklahoma and a 23–14 loss to Notre Dame dropped the Trojans to #9. They then needed a miracle comeback to beat Stanford getting a touchdown and field goal sandwiched around an onside kick in the last minute of the game. They went into the Rose Bowl decider as a slight underdog against #8 UCLA, but forced six turnovers and knocked off the
Similar to the previous year, the game was tied at halftime, then dominated by the victor in the second half. USC regained the lead briefly at 21–14 early in the third quarter, then Ohio State scored four unanswered touchdowns to Kicker Chris Limahelu's 47-yard field goal was the longest ever by a Trojan, breaking a 64-year-old record. This was the last time Ohio State defeated USC until 2017 in the Cotton Bowl. The Trojans won the next seven meetings from 1974 to 2009, including three Rose Bowls. This was the second of three consecutive Rose Bowls involving these two teams, and USC won the other two. Ohio State stopped a four-game winning streak by the Pac-8, but the next Big Ten victories were seven and fourteen years away. The Buckeyes' next Rose Bowl win came in January 1997, stopping previously undefeated Arizona State.
