Fiesta Bowl Tickets

Details of Fiesta Bowl and the Ticket Luck value

Fiesta Bowl
Since 1971, The Fiesta Bowl is a United States college football game played annually. Originally, the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium where it remained until 2006. University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is the current venue.

In 1998 the Fiesta Bowl became part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The Fiesta Bowl was born from the Western Athletic Conference's frustrated attempts to obtain bowl invitations for its champions.

In 1968 and 1969 respectively, champions Wyoming and Arizona State failed to secure any bowl selection. The next year, undefeated Arizona State was bypassed by the major bowls and had to settle for an appearance in the less prestigious Peach Bowl. 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 match ups, so beginning with the 1981 game the Fiesta Bowl shifted to New Year's Day with the other major bowl games.

A major breakthrough occurred in 1986 when the top two teams in the country, Miami and Penn State, agreed to play for the de facto national championship in the Fiesta Bowl. At the time, the big four bowl games, the Cotton, Orange, Sugar, and Rose, had contracts with the major conferences whose champions were guaranteed selection. Both Miami and Penn State were independents at that time. As such, the Fiesta Bowl and the Florida Citrus Bowl, each free from the obligation of conference tie-ins, vied to host the Miami-Penn State match up. The Fiesta Bowl won the bidding and the game was set to be played on January 2, a day after the big four bowls.

The 1987 Fiesta Bowl was won by Penn State, 14-10 over Miami, and drew the largest television viewership of any game 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 bowl season's big four.

Before 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 2006 Fiesta Bowl was the last Fiesta Bowl game in Sun Devil Stadium. In January 2007, the game was played at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, along with the new stand-alone BCS National Championship Game. In the BCS alignment the bowl hosts the Big 12 Conference champion unless they are involved in the national championship game.

On January 1, 2007, the undefeated Boise State Broncos won by defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime. It has been called one of the greatest college football games ever played, due to the combination of an underdog team, trick plays, comebacks by each team and a thrilling overtime finish.