The Fiesta Bowl

Will Luck prevail in his last college game

If you had to summarize the headline going into the 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, "So close, yet so far," would be most appropriate. This phrase depicts the summary of both Stanford's (11-1, 8-1 Pac-12) and Oklahoma State's (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) seasons this year in college football. Unfortunately for both of these teams, these words mean that neither team will have their first chance to play in the BCS national championship game at the end of this season. A loss against Oregon, by Stanford, and an upset loss at the hands of Iowa State by Oklahoma State sealed that fate. On January 2, 2012, these two schools, ranked number 3 and 4 in the country, will play in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. This game is arguably the most intriguing bowl game outside of the National Championship game.

The Luck Attack

Stanford features the almost certain #1 pick in the draft in Andrew Luck. Luck, a Heisman trophy candidate and favorite, leads the second highest scoring offense in the country against the 100th ranked defense of Oklahoma State. However, Oklahoma State is coming off of an extremely impressive and dominant performance in the Big 12 championship game against the pre-season #1 Sooners of Oklahoma. Stanford's pro-style offense also highlights the hands down best tight end group in the country. Nicknamed the "Tree Amigos," this core consists of Coby Fleener, Zack Ertz, and Levine Toilolo. They have accounted for 18 of Andrew Luck's 35 touchdown passes for the 2011 season. Coby Fleener leads this group with 10 TD receptions and 648 yards receiving. Fleener is a hard guard for many defenses, as he was faster than many defensive backs that were matched up with him downfield, he is also big enough to muscle around a lot of them at the line of scrimmage. Finally, the Stanford attack also features one of the best offensive lines in the country which provides valuable time for Luck, which can be deadly.

Triple Threat

Oklahoma State's offense is no slouch by any means either. QB Brandon Weeden, a 4,000 yard passer, Justin Blackmon, a 1,000 yard receiver, and, Joseph Randle, a 1,000 yard runner are the only three in the country that can make this claim all on one team. I wouldn't expect OSU be shut down by Stanford when they have the ball. So expect points to be lighting up the scoreboard in this game.

Here are some highlights from OSU's arch rival Oklahoma from earlier this season:

Which Style Will Prevail?

Oklahoma features a spread attack similar to what Oregon posed and had much success against earlier in November. Stanford features a pro-style offense that was initiated by its previous coach, Jim Harbaugh now the coach of the 49ers. Boasting the 25th ranked defense in the country, Stanford is good not great on this side of the ball. They have seen a spread before, but not with the balanced attack to accent the spread like Oklahoma State possesses. While Oklahoma State's defense is only ranked 100 in the country, they came up with an inspired performance in the Big 12 title game. The consensus is that this will continue against Luck and the Stanford Cardinal. But if Stanford can run the ball adequately and use the three great "Tree Amigos" to spread the field, Oklahoma could have difficulty containing the Cardinal.

The Fiesta Bowl Overview

The Fiesta Bowl is one of the most anticipated games of the Bowl Series Championship (BCS). But it didn't always have the popular following it has today. This bowl game was put together by the Western Athletic Conference, because of their teams disappointments, when they were consistently overlooked for bowl games.

The first Fiesta Bowl Game was played in 1971, between Arizona State, and Florida State. Both teams were in the top 20, and Arizona State was in the top ten. As it progressed, it was able to attract more teams, and featured top five Arizona State and top 5 Nebraska, in 1975.

After the bowl continued to grow in popularity, they moved the bowl to New Years day, when the other top bowl games were being played. The Fiesta Bowl got its big break in 1986 when it held its first National Championship game.

The game was between Penn State from the Big 10, and Miami, where Penn State took a 14-10 victory. This game was played on January 2, the day following the other big bowl games, and was at that time, the most watched college football game on television ever aired. Again in 1989, the Fiesta Bowl hosted the NCAA National Championship game.

In the nineties, things started out slow. Teams were apprehensive about playing in the Fiesta Bowl, because of Arizona's refusal of the national holiday Martin Luther King Day. Things changed when the Bowl Coalition took place.

Then the Fiesta Bowl became recognized as one of the four most important bowl games in college football, replacing the Cotton Bowl, and joining the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl. As the decade went on, the Bowl Series turned into the Bowl Championship series, and the Fiesta Bowl was set in a rotation to host the national championship every 4 years.

In recent years, the Fiesta Bowl has continued to make changes. At certain points they, have had rights to Big 12 champions and Pac 10 champions (now Pac 12 champions) not qualifying to play for the national championship, and also teams who had no automatic bids to BCS games through their conference.

The 2010 game was the first game in bowl game history to match up two teams, who did not have qualifying bids. Boise State had beat BYU 17-10 in that game. Another great game of this decade hosted by the fiesta bowl being the 2003 National Championship, where the Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Miami Hurricanes in the first ever overtime in a National Championship game.

Between the origin of the Fiesta Bowl in 1971, all the way up until 2006, the Sun Devil stadium in Tempe, Arizona was its host. Now, the game is played in Glendale, AZ at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Its current conference tie in is the Big 12, and its sponsors are Sunkist, Tostitos, and IMB. Through the controversy, growth, and BCS collaboration, the Fiesta Bowl has become one of the most important games in college sports today.

Don't forget that in the sportsbook we have all types of college football betting lines that will be setup for the entire holiday bowl season as well all the current NFL odds. The Fiesta Bowl Game preview and all of our Fiesta Bowl college football betting lines will become available at the end of the regular NCAA Football season when teams are finally selected and given the berths into holiday season matchups.