re: Chips are down: What are your favorite classic game(s) you re-watch?

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USC/Texas Rose Bowl will never get old.

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That game was the end of an era in a lot of ways. It was Keith Jackson's final game and the end of ABC's run of televising the national championship game. It was also the last time an actual bowl game (the rose bowl) was the national championship game. It was probably the last game a lot of people ever watched on a tube tv.

The 2005 season was also the last time a national championship game didn't feature an sec or big ten team and it was really the last game before the SEC's takeover and dominance of sport. Its hard to believe the previous season an undefeated SEC championship was left out of the national championship game, but it shows how different the sport was before and after that USC/Texas game. The first half of the bcs era was full of parity with all the main conferences playing for and winning national championships, the second half was dominated by the sec.

The late 90s to early-mid 2000s really feels like the peak of college football looking back, before the sport went off the rails with money, conference realignments, massive playoff fields, etc.