Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is a college football bowl game played each year at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The bowl, which started in 1971, has been part of the Bowl Championship Series since 1998. It pits the Big 12 Conference champion against another top team, usually one ranked in the BCS top 10 but not tied to another bowl.

The bowl's title sponsor is Frito-Lay, and it is named after the company's Tostitos brand. Previous sponsors include IBM and Sunkist.

Oklahoma State won the 2012 Fiesta Bowl with a 41-38 victory over Stanford.

The idea for the Fiesta Bowl began in the late 1960s as an automatic bowl berth for the Western Athletic Conference, which was having trouble earning invitations. In 1968 and 1969 the conference champion failed to secure any bowl selection, and the next year an undefeated Arizona State earned only a lower-tier invitation. For the first 35 years, the bowl was held at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

So the Fiesta Bowl was born in 1971, with sixth-ranked Arizona State (WAC champion for the third straight year) against Florida State, ranked 19th. The thrilling 45-38 ASU win was at that time the highest-scoring bowl game ever and was attended by 51,098 fans, the highest number ever for a bowl debut.

The Fiesta Bowl's tie-in with the WAC ended in 1978, when Arizona and Arizona State joined the Pac-10 Conference. From then, the bowl was free to select teams at large, and its profile continued to grow. By 1981, the bowl was played on New Year's Day with the other major games.

In 1986, No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Penn State agreed to play the Fiesta Bowl, marking the first time that the game would decide the national championship. Both schools were independent of conferences at that time, so were able to choose the Fiesta Bowl over any of the major bowl games that had conference tie-ins. Penn State won the first championship held in Tempe 14-10, in a game played Jan. 2, after the other major bowls. Two years later, No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 West Virginia faced off for the national title at the Fiesta Bowl once again.

By 1992, the Fiesta Bowl had cemented its reputation as a major bowl and, for all purposes, had replaced the Cotton Bowl as one of the "Big Four." That year, the Fiesta Bowl was invited to participate in the Bowl Coalition, and then the Bowl Alliance (both predecessors to the BCS) three years later. As part of the Bowl Alliance, the Fiesta Bowl was part of a rotation to host the national championship game, which it did again in 1996.

In 1998, as the BCS settled down, the Fiesta Bowl became a permanent part of the four-year title rotation, hosting the first BCS National Championship Game that year. The Fiesta Bowl held the national championship again in 2003 in the first title game to go into overtime -- Ohio State beat Miami in double overtime 31-24. In 2005, the Fiesta Bowl invited undefeated Utah to become the first non-BCS school to play in a BCS bowl (the Utes routed Big East champion Pittsburgh).

The Fiesta Bowl moved to Glendale, Ariz., in 2007, where it is housed in the new University of Phoenix Stadium. In the same year, the bowl began its tie-in with the Big 12 Conference champion (unless the team plays in the national championship). The first game held in Glendale has been called one of the best college football games ever played, as undefeated (and non-BCS) Boise State beat Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime. The game was packed with trick plays, numerous comebacks and last-second thrills (not to mention proposals -- the Boise State running back who successfully converted the game-winning two-point conversion proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend during his postgame interview).

The Broncos returned to the Fiesta Bowl in 2010, this time facing TCU. It marked the first time a BCS bowl hosted two non-AQ teams. The 2011 game featured Connecticut in its first BCS bowl appearance, but the Huskies were soundly beaten by Oklahoma, 48-20.

In 2011, Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker was fired for his role in a scandal in which Fiesta Bowl officials were accused of spending $4 million to curry favor from BCS and elected officials. An independent report commissioned by the Fiesta Bowl found that the board of directors was responsible for more than $40,000 in illegal campaign contributions, resulting in Junker's dismissal. After a review period, the Bowl Championship Series retained the Fiesta Bowl as one of the BCS bowl games, but fined the bowl $1 million.