The 2023 Cotton Bowl Classic was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

played on January 2, 2023, at

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. I ...

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

. The 87th annual

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

, the game featured two teams selected at-large by the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

selection committee —

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

from the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

and

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

from the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. The game began at 12:00 p.m. CST and was aired on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. Sponsored by the

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, S ...

, the game was officially known as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.

Teams

The game featured at-large teams selected by the

(CFP) selection committee. Tulane qualified as the highest-ranked team from the

Group of Five conferences In college football, the Group of Five are five athletic conferences whose members are part of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The five conferences are the American Athletic Conference (American), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-Am ...

. This was the fourth meeting between the two teams and their first since 1946; USC led the all-time series, 2–1. One of their meetings came in the 1932 Rose Bowl. This was USC's third Cotton Bowl, they were 1–1 in previous appearances. This was Tulane's first Cotton Bowl.

Tulane Green Wave

Tulane played to a 10–2 regular-season record (7–1 in conference). They faced two ranked teams, defeating

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and losing to UCF. Their only other loss was to

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

. The Green Wave qualified for the AAC Championship Game, where they defeated a ranked UCF in a rematch. Tulane entered the Cotton Bowl with an 11–2 overall record.

USC Trojans

USC compiled an 11–1 record during the regular season (8–1 in conference). Their only loss was to

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

in mid-October. In addition to Utah, USC faced ranked teams

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and Notre Dame, defeating the latter two. The Trojans qualified for the

Pac-12 Championship Game The Pac-12 Football Championship Game is an annual college football game held by the Pac-12 Conference to determine the season's conference champion. The game from the 2011–2021 seasons had the champion of the North Division against the champi ...

, where they lost to Utah in a rematch. USC entered the Cotton Bowl with an overall 11–2 record.

Game summary

USC had a lead of 14–0 that quickly evaporated, but led 28–14 at halftime. The game tightened again in the second half but USC kicked a field goal with just 4:30 left in the game to extend their lead to 45–30. Tulane responded by taking just 23 seconds to cut the lead to 45–37, and then registered a

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with 3:20 left to cut the lead to 45–39. Tulane then converted a pair of fourth downs on a 12-play, 66-yard drive, scoring the winning touchdown with just 9 seconds left in the game. With 4:30 remaining in the game and a 15-point lead, USC's win probability stood at 99.8%. With the win, Tulane finished their season with an overall 12–2 record, a 10-win improvement over their prior season—the biggest single-season improvement in NCAA football history.

Statistics

References

{{USC Trojans bowl game navbox

Cotton Bowl Classic

Tulane Green Wave football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games