With the expansion of the College Football Playoff to twelve teams in the 2024–25 season, the Fiesta Bowl will serve as either a quarterfinal or semifinal each year.

In its first decade of existence, the Fiesta Bowl was played in the last week of December (including the afternoon of Christmas Day from 1976 to 1979).

By 1975, the game was able to attract Big Eight co-champion Nebraska to play undefeated Arizona State in a matchup of top-five teams.

In 1977, the game was again able to attract a top-five opponent in Penn State, despite WAC champion #16 BYU refusing to play in the bowl due to its being held on Sunday.

Beginning with the 1981 season, it shifted to New Year's Day alongside the major bowl games—the Cotton, Orange, Sugar, and Rose.

[12] A major breakthrough occurred after the 1986 season when the top two teams in the country, Miami and Penn State, agreed to play for the de facto national championship in the Fiesta Bowl.

At the time, the traditional four "major" bowl games granted automatic bids to their conference champions.

Penn State won 14–10, and the game drew the largest television audience in the history of college football at the time.

Two years later, #1 Notre Dame played undefeated #3 West Virginia for the national championship at the 1989 Fiesta Bowl on January 1.

The 1987 and 1989 games were two of four straight matchups of teams ranked in the AP Top 10 going into the bowl season to close out the 1980s.

Before the 1991 game, several major universities declined invitations due to the State of Arizona's decision at that time not to adopt the Martin Luther King Holiday.

In 1998, the Fiesta Bowl featured the first BCS National Championship Game, which Tennessee won over Florida State, 23–16.

However, instead of gaining the Pac-10 Conference champion in addition to their usual tie-in with the Big 12, the Fiesta Bowl would have had a choice of the two teams.

[13] The BCS National Championship game returned to the Fiesta Bowl in 2003 with the Big Ten champions Ohio State Buckeyes beating the Big East champions Miami Hurricanes in the first overtime national championship game.

Notable players included Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon for Oklahoma State, and Andrew Luck for Stanford.

The game was behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, with only player's family members admitted.

In the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma State rallied from a 28-7 deficit late in the 2nd quarter to defeat Notre Dame 37-35.

This event is one of those referred to by proponents of college football implementing a playoff series rather than the controversial Bowl Alliance.

[17] For the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, the selections of TCU and Boise State caused a great deal of controversy.

[23] Furthermore, as a non-profit organization, the Fiesta Bowl is prohibited from making political contributions of any kind.

"[25] The following year, in a November 2010 article, Sports Illustrated reported that Fiesta Bowl officials, including bowl CEO John Junker, spent $4 million since 2000 to curry favor from BCS bigwigs and elected officials, including a 2008 "Fiesta Frolic", a golf-centered gathering of athletic directors and head coaches.

The journal also reported that Junker's annual salary was close to $600,000 and that the bowl, in 2007 turned an $11.6 million profit.

On March 29, 2011, the Fiesta Bowl Board of Directors released a 276-page "scathing internal report", commissioned by them to re-examine the accusations of illegal political activities.

[27] The commission determined that $46,539 of illegal campaign contributions were made and the board immediately fired Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, who had already been suspended pending the results of this investigation.

Lost (11): Alabama, Baylor, BYU, Connecticut, Florida, Liberty, Missouri, Stanford, USC, Washington, Wyoming