Yes, the 'when' in the title is purposeful. Rather than if, when the Alabama Crimson Tide beats the Indiana Hoosiers in the Rose Bowl, it will not be Alabama's greatest Rose Bowl win. The bar is too high for it to qualify as the best. Alabama winning one hundred years from the date of Alabama's first Rose Bowl will be monumental, but not the best of alltime.
Any Indiana fan who has stumbled upon this claim of an Alabama win will no doubt label it delusional. So be it. What was delusional was a Christmas morning tweet by an Indiana fan that said with three more wins, at 16-0, the Hoosiers would be the greatest college football team of all time.
Alabama's outstanding Rose Bowl record of 6-2-1 includes three wins to consider for the Tide's greatest Rose Bowl win. They are the 1926, 2010, and 2021 Rose Bowls. Alabama fans can make claims for each one being the greatest.
The first Rose Bowl game was in 1902. Michigan beat Stanford in such a one-sided game that the next Rose Bowl football game was in 1916. Instead of football, the Rose Bowl event was chariot races.
First Alabama Crimson Tide Rose Bowl - 1926
While Alabama travelled cross-country by train, the Washington Huskies could have arrived in Pasadena by chariots like conquering Roman warriors. That was how heavily they were favored to win. No one gave the Crimson Tide a chance. Alabama won a brutal physical battle, knocking Washington's star running back, George 'Wildcat' Wilson, out of the game for a quarter and a half. Wilson returned late in the game and almost won it for the Huskies, but Alabama prevailed 20-19. Alabama football and southern football in general were forever changed.
Nick Saban's Alabama Football Restoration
The 2010 Rose Bowl was Alabama's was the Crimson Tide's 'Restoration' game. In a religious sense, it was also a revival that brought not just a new seat on college football's throne but also provided a cleansing of faded glories tamped down only briefly by the 1992 National Championship. Texas was the outmatched and unfortunate foe in Alabama's 37-21 win. Near the end, Eli Gold spoke for the Crimson Tide nation, saying, "And the roses in this grand old stadium are once again crimson."
Note: Technically, the 2010 game was in the Rose Bowl, but it was the National Championship Game, and not the 2009 season's Rose Bowl.
2021 Rose Bowl
Alabama's 2021 Playoff Semi-Final Game was the Rose Bowl, but it was played in Arlington, TX, rather than in Pasadena. Against Notre Dame, Alabama put the game out of reach when it scored its third touchdown midway through the second quarter. The Crimson Tide cruised in the second half because the Fighting Irish were so outmatched. A late Notre Dame touchdown against Alabama subs made the final score 31-14.
My vote for the best is the most recent one, mainly because the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide was unequivocally college football's best team - no other team was close.