Fiesta Bowl

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The Fiesta Bowl is a major bowl game held since 1971. The game originated at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, where it remained until 2007, when it moved to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. (Ironically, the University of Phoenix -- a distance-learning institution -- has no sports teams; the name is simply a sponsorship arrangement. The stadium is the home stadium of the NFL Arizona Cardinals.)

From 1971-1977, the game featured an at-large opponent facing the champion of the Western Athletic Conference, at a time when both Arizona schools were still members of that conference. When they moved to the Pacific Eight Conference to form the Pac-10, the tie-in ended. From 1978-1992, the game pitted two at-large teams; famously, the bowl leveraged its position to host the de facto National Championship game following the 1986 season, as Miami (FL) and Penn State were both independent, free of other bowl tie-ins, and ranked #1 and #2 in the country.

In 1992, the Fiesta became part of the Bowl Coalition, which morphed into the Bowl Alliance; during this time, the bowl picked up the automatic tie-in with the newly-constituted Big 12 Conference starting in 1996. It remained the home bowl for the Big 12 champion through 2013, save in years when it hosted the BCS Championship Game (following the 1998 and 2002 seasons) and in years when the Big 12 champion played in the Bowl Alliance/BCS title game elsewhere (following 1997, 2000, 2004, 2005, and 2009). Beginning in 2014, the Fiesta became part of the New Year's Six bowl group, being granted two of the top 12 teams in the nation each year without affiliation in years when the Fiesta is not itself a semifinal for the College Football Playoff.

The Fiesta was the first BCS bowl to reach out beyond the ranks of the BCS automatic qualifiers, selecting Utah in 2005; of the six non-AQ teams to play in BCS bowls prior to 2014, the Fiesta selected four. They grabbed two in one scoop after the 2009 season, matching WAC champion Boise State with Mountain West Conference champion Texas Christian, both of whom were undefeated and ranked in the top five. As the non-AQ teams are now guaranteed at least one spot in the New Year's Six grouping, it's expected that the Fiesta's role will remain generally unchanged; indeed, in the first year of the new system, Boise State again traveled to Glendale.

Results

27 DEC 1971 Arizona State 45 Florida State 38
23 DEC 1972 Arizona State 49 Missouri 35
21 DEC 1973 Arizona State 28 Pittsburgh 7
28 DEC 1974 Oklahoma State 16 Brigham Young 6
26 DEC 1975 Arizona State 17 Nebraska 14
25 DEC 1976 Oklahoma 41 Wyoming 7
25 DEC 1977 Penn State 42 Arizona State 30
25 DEC 1978 Arkansas 10 Cal-Los Angeles 10
25 DEC 1979 Pittsburgh 16 Arizona 10
26 DEC 1980 Penn State 31 Ohio State 19
01 JAN 1982 Penn State 26 Southern California 10
01 JAN 1983 Arizona State 32 Oklahoma 21
02 JAN 1984 Ohio State 28 Pittsburgh 23
01 JAN 1985 Cal-Los Angeles 39 Miami (FL) 37
01 JAN 1986 Michigan 27 Nebraska 23
02 JAN 1987 Penn State 14 Miami (FL) 10
01 JAN 1988 Florida State 31 Nebraska 28
02 JAN 1989 Notre Dame 34 West Virginia 21
01 JAN 1990 Florida State 41 Nebraska 17
01 JAN 1991 Louisville 34 Alabama 7
01 JAN 1992 Penn State 42 Tennessee 17
01 JAN 1993 Syracuse 26 Colorado 22
01 JAN 1994 Arizona 29 Miami (FL) 0
02 JAN 1995 Colorado 41 Notre Dame 24
02 JAN 1996^ Nebraska 62 Florida 24
01 JAN 1997 Penn State 38 Texas 15
31 DEC 1997 Kansas State 35 Syracuse 18
04 JAN 1999‡ Tennessee 23 Florida State 16
02 JAN 2000 Nebraska 31 Tennessee 21
01 JAN 2001 Oregon State 41 Notre Dame 9
01 JAN 2002 Oregon 38 Colorado 16
03 JAN 2003††‡ Ohio State 31 Miami (FL) 24
02 JAN 2004 Ohio State 35 Kansas State 28
01 JAN 2005 Utah 35 Pittsburgh 7
02 JAN 2006 Ohio State 34 Notre Dame 20
01 JAN 2007† Boise State 43 Oklahoma 42
02 JAN 2008 West Virginia 48 Oklahoma 28
05 JAN 2009 Texas 24 Ohio State 21
04 JAN 2010 Boise State 17 Texas Christian 10
01 JAN 2011 Oklahoma 48 Connecticut 20
02 JAN 2012† Oklahoma State 41 Stanford 38
03 JAN 2013 Oregon 35 Kansas State 17
01 JAN 2014 Central Florida 52 Baylor 42
31 DEC 2014 Boise State 38 Arizona 30

† - denotes overtime ^ - Bowl Alliance Championship Game ‡ - BCS National Championship Game