Fiesta Bowl
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
