The Vrbo Fiesta Bowl has played an integral role in the college football postseason landscape for decades.
The bowl pitted two independents together for the national championship when no other bowl could in 1987, with No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Penn State. It featured the first championship game of the BCS era in 1999, and in 2007 the Statue of Liberty Game, when Boise State shocked everybody and took down the mighty Oklahoma Sooners.
Now, the Fiesta Bowl enters a whole new era as the College Football Playoff expands. With 12 teams added to the field, State Farm Stadium in Glendale has become part of the permanent rotation of games. State Farm most recently hosted a semifinal in 2023 with No. 3 TCU and No. 2 Michigan, but will now host a College Football Playoff game every year moving forward.
The Fiesta Bowl will make history as it is the first quarterfinal game of the newly expanded CFP, which takes place the evening of Dec. 31. The rest of the quarterfinal games will be played on New Year’s Day.
Fiesta Bowl CEO Erik Moses speaks on Aug. 15, 2024, at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort.
“We are fortunate to have started with nine founders who had a pioneering spirit in figuring out how to make certain that Arizona had a bowl game, and that ASU at the time could get into a bowl game that mattered,” said Erik Moses, Fiesta Bowl CEO and executive director, during a press conference in Scottsdale on Thursday.
“We want to continue to pursue that pioneering spirit. We call ourselves the ‘Bowl of Firsts.’ It’s fitting that we would host the first quarterfinal. We’re honored to have that opportunity.”
The expansion of the playoff means the date of the Fiesta Bowl will fluctuate. For the 2025 season, the Fiesta Bowl will be a CFP semifinal game, which will be on Jan. 8, 2026. That will be the latest day for the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fiesta-bowl-ceo-erik-moses-120159780.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-08-17 12:01:59
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