What is the Fiesta Bowl in college football? Date, venue and meaning of CFB bowl game explored

The Fiesta Bowl is one of the most highly-anticipated bowl games in college football. It is a major part of the 41 bowl games that are held following the regular season.

The NCAA will announce participants for the upcoming Fiesta Bowl on Sunday, Dec. 3.

What is the Fiesta Bowl in college football?

The Fiesta Bowl is one of the New Year's Six bowl games.

The Fiesta Bowl is one of the New Year's Six college football games that take place during the holiday season. Since 2007, the game has been held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

The first Fiesta Bowl game was played on Dec. 27, 1971, with Arizona State recording a 45-38 win over Florida State. From its inception in 1971 until 2006, the bowl game was played at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

The Fiesta Bowl has been sponsored by Vrbo since 2022. The event was previously sponsored by PlayStation, BattleFrog, Vizio, Tostitos, IBM and Sunkist.

Notably, the Fiesta Bowl hosted a College Football Playoff semifinal in the 2016, 2019 and 2022 seasons. The next time it will hold a playoff game will be for the 2025 season.

Who usually plays in the Fiesta Bowl?

From 1971 to 1978, the Fiesta Bowl was a guaranteed invitation to the Western Athletic Conference champion. From 1997 to 2013, the event hosted two top programs from the country that weren't invited to major bowls.

In the last edition of the Fiesta Bowl, the Big 12's TCU Horned Frogs squared off against the Big Ten's Michigan Wolverines. The high-scoring game ended in a 51-45 win for TCU.

When is the next Fiesta Bowl?

The upcoming Fiesta Bowl is scheduled to take place on Monday, Jan. 1. Kick-off for the game is scheduled at 1 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

The Fiesta Bowl will be broadcast live on ESPN, but fans without cable access can live stream the game on Fubo TV.