Fiesta Bowl
football game
Fiesta Bowl, annual American college postseason gridiron football game held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, beginning in 2007, after having been played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, for the first 35 years of its existence. It is one of six bowls (along with the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl) that take turns hosting the national championship semifinal games of Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) college football as part of the College Football Playoff.
The inaugural Fiesta Bowl was held on December 27, 1971, with Arizona State defeating Florida State 45–38. Subsequent games were played during the last week of December until 1982, when the date shifted to January 1; with the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, the game is now played on either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. In 1987 the bowl pitted two undefeated teams—Penn State and Miami—in a game that, at that time, was the most watched in college football history. Penn State won 14–10 and claimed the national title. The Fiesta Bowl again hosted national champion-defining games in 1989 and 1996. As part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS; the precursor to the College Football Playoff), in 1999 and 2003 it served as the national championship game, and in 2007, under a new BCS format, the University of Phoenix Stadium was the site of the championship, played just days after the Fiesta Bowl was contested there.
In 2011 the Fiesta Bowl was rocked by scandal when an internal investigation alleged that the bowl’s CEO, John Junker, oversaw widespread malfeasance, such as the illegal payment of politicians, an attempted cover-up of those payments, and lavish expenditures that were billed to the bowl, including Junker’s four-day 50th-birthday party at a golf resort and a $1,200 visit to a strip club. Junker was subsequently fired, and the Fiesta Bowl was forced to pay $1 million to Arizona charities and was placed on one year of probation. However, the relative lightness of the penalty, as well as the fact that the Fiesta Bowl was allowed to remain a part of the BCS and keep its favorable nonprofit tax status, alienated much of the public and led to increased calls for larger reform of the bowl system.
A list of Fiesta Bowl results is provided in the table.
season
result
*Part of Bowl Championship Series (BCS) from 1998–99 until 2013–14; part of College Football Playoff (CFP) from 2014–15.
**BCS national championship game.
***CFP semifinal.
1971–72
Arizona State
45
Florida State
38
1972–73
Arizona State
49
Missouri
35
1973–74
Arizona State
28
Pittsburgh
7
1974–75
Oklahoma State
16
Brigham Young
6
1975–76
Arizona State
17
Nebraska
14
1976–77
Oklahoma
41
Wyoming
7
1977–78
Penn State
42
Arizona State
30
1978–79
Arkansas
10
UCLA
10
1979–80
Pittsburgh
16
Arizona
10
1980–81
Penn State
31
Ohio State
19
1981–82
Penn State
26
Southern California
10
1982–83
Arizona State
32
Oklahoma
21
1983–84
Ohio State
28
Pittsburgh
23
1984–85
UCLA
39
Miami (Fla.)
37
1985–86
Michigan
27
Nebraska
23
1986–87
Penn State
14
Miami (Fla.)
10
1987–88
Florida State
31
Nebraska
28
1988–89
Notre Dame
34
West Virginia
21
1989–90
Florida State
41
Nebraska
17
1990–91
Louisville
34
Alabama
7
1991–92
Penn State
42
Tennessee
17
1992–93
Syracuse
26
Colorado
22
1993–94
Arizona
29
Miami (Fla.)
1994–95
Colorado
41
Notre Dame
24
1995–96
Nebraska
62
Florida
24
1996–97
Penn State
38
Texas
15
1997–98
Kansas State
35
Syracuse
18
1998–99**
Tennessee
23
Florida State
16
1999–2000
Nebraska
31
Tennessee
21
2000–01
Oregon State
41
Notre Dame
9
2001–02
Oregon
38
Colorado
16
2002–03**
Ohio State
31
Miami (Fla.)
24
2003–04
Ohio State
35
Kansas State
28
2004–05
Utah
35
Pittsburgh
7
2005–06
Ohio State
34
Notre Dame
20
2006–07
Boise State
43
Oklahoma
42
2007–08
West Virginia
48
Oklahoma
28
2008–09
Texas
24
Ohio State
21
2009–10
Boise State
17
TCU
10
2010–11
Oklahoma
48
Connecticut
20
2011–12
Oklahoma State
41
Stanford
38
2012–13
Oregon
35
Kansas State
17
2013–14
Central Florida
52
Baylor
42
2014–15
Boise State
38
Arizona
30
2015–16
Ohio State
44
Notre Dame
28
2016–17***
Clemson
31
Ohio State
2017–18
Penn State
35
Washington
28
2018–19
Louisiana State
40
Central Florida
32
2019–20***
Clemson
29
Ohio State
23
2020–21
Iowa State
34
Oregon
17
2021–22
Oklahoma State
37
Notre Dame
35
2022–23***
TCU
51
Michigan
45
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