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The Fiesta Bowl Championship

The Fiesta Bowl, now sponsored by Tostitos tortilla chips (a Frito-Lay product), is a United States college football game played annually since 1971 in Tempe, Arizona, hosted by Arizona State University.

In 2000 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 next time the Fiesta Bowl will host the BCS title game, the game will be played at Cardinals Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

Fiesta Bowl 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, the University of 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 and all of the other major bowls had tie-ins with conferences. This circumstance repeated itself in 1989 when #1 Notre Dame played undefeated #3 West Virginia for the National Championship at the Fiesta Bowl.

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 National Championship Game rotation.