| 2002 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| BCS Bowl Game 31st Fiesta Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sun Devil Stadium inTempe, Arizona, hosted the Fiesta Bowl. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Sun Devil Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Tempe, Arizona | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Joey Harrington,QB Steve Smith,CB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | Boston | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Al Ford (SEC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 74,118 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Brent Musburger,Gary Danielson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 11.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The2002TostitosFiesta Bowl, played on January 1, 2002, was the 31st edition of theFiesta Bowl. The game was played atSun Devil Stadium inTempe, Arizona between theColorado Buffaloes (ranked #3 in theBCS) and theOregon Ducks (ranked #4 in the BCS). Oregon was ranked #2 in both theAP Poll andCoaches Poll, leading to some controversy that Oregon should have played for the2002 BCS National Championship.
In the game, OregonquarterbackJoey Harrington threw for 350 yards and 4 touchdowns and led the Ducks to a 38–16 victory. Harrington was named offensive player of the game. OregoncornerbackSteve Smith had three interceptions, a Fiesta Bowl record, and was named defensive player of the game.[1]
This was the first edition of the Fiesta Bowl to match two schools from the Western United States. Previous editions had either only one representative from the West, or none.
Colorado and Oregon became temporary conference rivals for 13 seasons when the Buffaloes joined Oregon's conference, thePac-12 Conference (formerly the Pacific-10 Conference), in 2011.