Fiesta Bowl

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl logo

The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Tostitos tortilla chips (a Frito-Lay product), is a United States college football game played annually since 1971. Originally, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium where it remained until 2006.

In 1999 the Fiesta Bowl became part of the Bowl Championship Series, and every four years (most recently in 2003) is the designee for the national championship game. In January 2007, the game will be played at Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, along with the new stand-alone BCS National Championship Game. In the BCS alignment the bowl will host the Big 12 conference champion unless they are involved in the national championship game.

History

The creation of Fiesta Bowl grew out of the frustration of the Western Athletic Conference in trying to obtain suitable bowl invitiations for its champions. In 1968 and 1969, respectively, champions Wyoming and Arizona State failed to obtain any invitation, while in 1970, undefeated Arizona State was bypassed by the major bowls and had to settle for a less prestigious Peach Bowl appearance. The Fiesta Bowl therefore initially provided an automatic bowl tie-in for the Western Athletic Conference champion.

The 1971 inaugural game featured another top ten Arizona State squad against top twenty opponent Florida State. By 1975, the game was able to attract Big Eight co-champion Nebraska to play undefeated Arizona State in a matchup of top five teams. In 1977, the game was again able to attract a top five opponent in Penn State.

In 1978, Arizona and Arizona State each joined the Pac 10 Conference, and the Fiesta Bowl's tie-in with the Western Athletic Conference ended. The game continued to attract high quality matchups, however, and beginning with the 1981 game shifted to New Year's Day with the other major bowl games.

A major breakthrough occurred in 1987 when the top two teams in the country, Miami and Penn State, agreed to play for the National Championship in the Fiesta Bowl. Both universities were independents at that time, all of the so-called major bowls had tie-ins with conferences, and of the other bowls only the Fiesta Bowl had the resources to pull off a matchup of this magnitude. The 1987 game, won by Penn State 14-10, was the most watched game, in terms of television viewership, in the history of college football. Two years later, #1 Notre Dame played undefeated #3 West Virginia for the National Championship at the Fiesta Bowl. By this time, the Fiesta Bowl's ability to stage games with national championship implications propelled it to major-bowl status in the minds of college football fans, replacing the Cotton Bowl as a member of the postseason's "top four."

For the 1991 game, several major universities declined invitations due to the State of Arizona's decision at that time not to adopt the Martin Luther King Holiday.

In 1992, the Fiesta Bowl was invited to participate in the Bowl Coalition, a predecessor to the Bowl Championship Series, assuring the game would feature major conference champions or prestigious runners up, and the possibility of hosting further national title games. When this series incorporated a title game with a preset rotating site beginning in 1996, the Fiesta Bowl was the first to host the game, featuring undefeated #1 Nebraska playing undefeated #2 Florida for the National Championship. Finally, with the addition of the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences to the rechristened Bowl Championship Series, the Fiesta Bowl became a permanent fixture in the four year BCS National Championship Game rotation. In 1998, the Fiesta Bowl featured the first BCS National Championship Game, which Tennessee won over Florida State, 23 to 16.

The BCS National Championship game returned to the Fiesta Bowl 2003 with The Ohio State Buckeyes beating the Miami Hurricanes in the first overtime national championship game. The game went into 2 overtimes with the Buckeyes coming out on top 31-24 to claim the 2002 National Championship. Since that game the Buckeyes have returned to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004 beating Kansas St. and in 2006 beating Norte Dame. During the trophy presentation Ohio State quarterback and MVP, Troy Smith, commented on The Buckeyes dominance in the Fiesta Bowl by saying "The National Championship game is here next year, We like that."

Game results

Italics denote a tie game.
* - Denotes BCS Championship Games

Date played	Winning team		Losing team
December 27, 1971	Arizona State	45	Florida State	38
December 23, 1972	Arizona State	49	Missouri	35
December 21, 1973	Arizona State	28	Pittsburgh	7
December 28, 1974	Oklahoma State	16	BYU	6
December 26, 1975	Arizona State	17	Nebraska	14
December 25, 1976	Oklahoma	41	Wyoming	7
December 25, 1977	Penn State	42	Arizona State	30
December 25, 1978	Arkansas	10	UCLA	10
December 25, 1979	Pittsburgh	16	Arizona	10
December 26, 1980	Penn State	31	Ohio State	19
January 1, 1982	Penn State	26	Southern California	10
January 1, 1983	Arizona State	32	Oklahoma	21
January 2, 1984	Ohio State	28	Pittsburgh	23
January 1, 1985	UCLA	39	Miami	37
January 1, 1986	Michigan	27	Nebraska	23
January 2, 1987	Penn State	14	Miami	10
January 1, 1988	Florida State	31	Nebraska	28
January 2, 1989	Notre Dame	34	West Virginia	21
January 1, 1990	Florida State	41	Nebraska	17
January 1, 1991	Louisville	34	Alabama	7
January 1, 1992	Penn State	42	Tennessee	17
January 1, 1993	Syracuse	26	Colorado	22
January 1, 1994	Arizona	29	Miami	0
January 2, 1995	Colorado	41	Notre Dame	24
January 2, 1996	Nebraska	62	Florida	24
January 1, 1997	Penn State	38	Texas	15
December 31, 1997	Kansas State	35	Syracuse	18
January 4, 1999*	Tennessee	23	Florida State	16
January 2, 2000	Nebraska	31	Tennessee	21
January 1, 2001	Oregon State	41	Notre Dame	9
January 1, 2002	Oregon	38	Colorado	16
January 3, 2003*	Ohio State	31	Miami	24 (2 OT)
January 2, 2004	Ohio State	35	Kansas State	28
January 1, 2005	Utah	35	Pittsburgh	7
January 2, 2006	Ohio State	34	Notre Dame	20

MVPs

Date played	MVPs	Team	Position
December 27, 1971	Gary Huff	Florida State	QB
	Junior Ah You	Arizona State	DE
December 23, 1972	Woody Green	Arizona State	HB
	Mike Fink	Missouri	DB
December 21, 1973	Greg Hudson	Arizona State	SE
	Mike Haynes	Arizona State	CB
December 28, 1974	Kenny Walker	Oklahoma State	RB
	Phil Dokes	Oklahoma State	DT
December 26, 1975	John Jefferson	Arizona State	WR
	Larry Gordon	Arizona State	LB
December 25, 1976	Thomas Lott	Oklahoma	QB
	Terry Peters	Oklahoma	CB
December 25, 1977	Matt Millen	Penn State	LB
	Dennis Sproul	Arizona State	QB
December 25, 1978	James Owens	UCLA	RB
	Jimmy Walker	Arkansas	DT
December 25, 1979	Mark Schubert	Pittsburgh	K
	Dave Liggins	Arizona	S
December 26, 1980	Curt Warner	Penn State	RB
	Frank Case	Penn State	DE
January 1, 1982	Curt Warner	Penn State	RB
	Leo Wisniewski	Penn State	NT
January 1, 1983	Marcus Dupree	Oklahoma	RB
	Jim Jeffcoat	Arizona State	DL
January 2, 1984	John Congemi	Pittsburgh	QB
	Rowland Tatum	Ohio State	LB
January 1, 1985	Gaston Green	UCLA	TB
	James Washington	UCLA	DB
January 1, 1986	Jamie Morris	Michigan	RB
	Mark Messner	Michigan	DT
January 2, 1987	D.J. Dozier	Penn State	RB
	Shane Conlan	Penn State	LB
January 1, 1988	Danny McManus	Florida State	QB
	Neil Smith	Nebraska	DL
January 2, 1989	Tony Rice	Notre Dame	QB
	Frank Stams	Notre Dame	DE
January 1, 1990	Peter Tom Willis	Florida State	QB
	Odell Haggins	Florida State	NG
January 1, 1991	Browning Nagle	Louisville	QB
	Ray Buchanan	Louisville	FS
January 1, 1992	O.J. McDuffie	Penn State	WR
	Reggie Givens	Penn State	OLB
January 1, 1993	Marvin Graves	Syracuse	QB
	Kevin Mitchell	Syracuse	NG
January 1, 1994	Chuck Levy	Arizona	RB
	Tedy Bruschi	Arizona	DE
January 2, 1995	Kordel Stewart	Colorado	QB
	Shannon Clavelle	Colorado	DT
January 2, 1996	Tommie Frazier	Nebraska	QB
	Michael Booker	Nebraska	CB
January 1, 1997	Curtis Enis	Penn State	TB
	Brandon Noble	Penn State	DT
December 31, 1997	Michael Bishop	Kansas State	QB
	Travis Ochs	Kansas State	LB
January 4, 1999	Peerless Price	Tennessee	WR
	Dwayne Goodrich	Tennessee	CB
January 2, 2000	Eric Crouch	Nebraska	QB
	Mike Brown	Nebraska	DB
January 1, 2001	Jonathan Smith	Oregon State	QB
	Darnell Robinson	Oregon State	LB
January 1, 2002	Joey Harrington	Oregon	QB
	Steve Smith	Oregon	DB
January 3, 2003	Craig Krenzel	Ohio State	QB
	Mike Doss	Ohio State	DB
January 2, 2004	Craig Krenzel	Ohio State	QB
	A.J. Hawk	Ohio State	LB
January 1, 2005	Alex Smith	Utah	QB
	Paris Warren	Utah	WR
	Steve Fifita	Utah	NG
January 2, 2006	Troy Smith	Ohio State	QB
	A.J. Hawk	Ohio State	LB

See also

*List of college bowl games
*Fiesta Bowl broadcasters

External links

*Fiesta Bowl
*History of the Fiesta Bowl

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