Posted by QuickReadAbout.com Staff in Fiesta Bowl tickets are always in demand, as this BCS game is one of the most high-profile college bowl games in the United States every January. The Fiesta Bowl came from humble beginnings, but the event’s rise in the world of college football is a tale of success and high-end development. If you haven’t seen the game, perhaps you don’t understand how much it means to several people who got together to form the event more than 30 years ago.
About the Game
The Fiesta Bowl was first played in 1971, and the biggest reason for its foundation was the frustration that executives associated with the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) were feeling in regards to their championship teams. At that time, the WAC did not have an automatic bowl tie-in like the Big Ten and Pac Ten did with the Rose Bowl, and for two consecutive years, 1968 and 1969, the WAC champion did not receive any bowl invitation. In 1970, WAC champion Arizona State, a team that had gone undefeated, received only a minor bowl invitation.
As a result, organizers decided to get together to form a game that gave the WAC champion an outlet for postseason play. Originally, the game was not high-profile, but it didn’t take long for the Fiesta Bowl to begin to attract big-time teams. This was due in part to the success of perennial WAC champion Arizona State, as they were highly-ranked every season.
Fiesta Bowl tickets reached the top tier of bowl tickets in the mid-1970’s, when Florida State and Nebraska each agreed to come to the desert to face the Sun Devils. The game always drew thousands of fans and got good television ratings, but everything began to change when Arizona and Arizona State joined the Pac Ten in 1978.
However, the Fiesta Bowl committee decided to up the ante, as they moved the game to New Year’s Day from late December and began to heavily recruit at-large teams that were highly-ranked, given that their WAC tie-in was no longer in place. Their efforts were a success, and several classic Fiesta Bowls unfolded over the next 20+ years.
Ultimately, the Fiesta Bowl reached its apex of development in the 1990’s, when the Bowl Coalition and ultimately the BCS were formed and included the Fiesta Bowl as part of its games that helped to decide a national champion. As of now, the Fiesta Bowl hosts the national championship game every four years, and Fiesta Bowl tickets are sure to provide you with big-time teams competing for high stakes in Arizona.