PASADENA, Calif. — Cream and crimson confetti filled the sky high above the Rose Bowl, briefly obstructing the emerging sunshine and San Gabriel Mountains. The Indiana University Marching 100 belted out “Indiana Fight” as football coach Curt Cignetti took on-field photos with his family — and actually smiled.

The top-ranked Indiana Hoosiers won the Rose Bowl, something they had never done before. That they rolled No. 9 Alabama 38-3 was inconceivable as recently as 2023 before Cignetti’s arrival. But even more, as perhaps 60,000 Indiana fans stood at their seats cheering and chanting “Hoo-hoo-hoo Hoosiers” inside the venerable stadium, players and coaches embraced the moment, appreciated the accomplishment and then quickly moved on to the next task.

An epic win like this in previous years would have netted a week-long celebration with euphoria stretching until next season. For Indiana, which was the first program to lose 700 games, every victory at this stage qualifies as historic. Yet as the players stood in a single-file line and collected their Rose Bowl championship hats and T-shirts, their internal clocks had already set their alarms for how long they could enjoy the victory.

“We’ve got 24 hours,” Indiana running back Roman Hemby said. “I’m honestly going to celebrate on the flight back home, and once I get back, I’ll be in the training room figuring out ways to get my body better. Then I’ll dive on the film because I feel like we can never be too prepared for a game like this with this big of a magnitude.”

Indiana (14-0) needs to take this approach if it is to win a national championship, which odds suggest it can and is favored to do. It plays No. 5 Oregon (12-1) in a College Football Playoff semifinal on Jan. 9 at Atlanta’s Peach Bowl. The Rose Bowl matchup between Indiana and Alabama served as a national quarterfinal, which explains why players were still looking forward. Their supporters, though, they could relish this.

The Rose Bowl still conjures special feelings for fans of traditional Big Ten programs from when reaching Pasadena was the pinnacle achievement.

Despite a steady morning rain, Indiana fans embodied that notion. They filled the parking lots and streets of Pasadena and made their way to the stadium hours before kickoff. As the Hoosiers team buses reached the stadium, deafening cheers greeted the players as they walked down the tunnel toward their locker room.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said. “I told my wife when I got here, I don’t think I’ll ever forget the trip into the game.”

Cheers inside the Rose Bowl followed the Hoosiers from warmups through game introductions. It’s more than 2,000 miles from Pasadena to Bloomington, yet on Thursday there was a true home-field advantage for the Big Ten champions. It was noticeable and pervasive.

Part of it was the base simply showing up in much larger numbers than Alabama, which dwarfs Indiana in trips to major bowls and CFP games. But the Hoosiers also had to bottle up the atmosphere and use it as fuel. And they did that and more.