The 2006 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, played on January 2, 2006, was the 35th edition of the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area since 1971. From its beginning until 2006, the game was hosted at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has be ...

, sponsored by

Frito-Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, Fritos, the Frito Company and Lay's, H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merg ...

through its

Tostitos Tostitos is a Frito-Lay brand of tortilla chips and accompanying dips, especially salsa and queso. Varieties There are many varieties of Tostitos chips: * Tostitos ''Gold'' (and bite size ''Gold'') - a thicker and larger version of the or ...

tortilla chip brand. The game featured the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 26 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

and the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

, and resulted in a 34–20 Ohio State win. Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith became the frontrunner of the 2006 Heisman race, after he completed 19 of his 28 passes for 342 yards, including 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Notre Dame's Brady Quinn completed 29 out of his 45 passes for 286 yards. Notre Dame got the first score of the game, with a 20-yard touchdown run by

Darius Walker Darius A'Dunte Walker (born October 21, 1985) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He was signed by the Ho ...

. Then Ohio State responded on a 6-play, 86-yard drive capped off with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr. In the second quarter, off a wide-receiver reverse, Ginn rushed 68 yards to the left side for a touchdown. Then with just over 2 minutes to go in the half, Troy Smith found Santonio Holmes for an 85-yard touchdown pass, and Ohio State led 21–7 at half-time. In the second half, Notre Dame scored on Darius Walker's second rushing touchdown of the game, to make the score 21–13 in favor of Ohio State. Notre Dame's defense forced two Ohio State field goals to make the score 27–13. With five minutes left to go in the game, Darius Walker got his third rushing touchdown of the game, bringing the Irish within 27–20. On third and five, with Ohio State using up the clock, the Buckeyes scored on a 60-yard touchdown run by Antonio Pittman to clinch the victory.

Selection of teams

The Fiesta Bowl this season was supposed to choose either the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...

champion or the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

champion as part of the BCS tie-ins for this season. The Rose Bowl served as the BCS National Championship Game this season, and the Pac-10 conference tie-in moved to the Fiesta Bowl as a result. Unlike the 2001 season, the Fiesta Bowl would not be allowed to match the Big 12 and Pac-10 champions, it could choose only one of them. However, neither the Big 12 or Pac-10 champions would be available to the Fiesta Bowl in the end, as those teams, the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

and the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans (also Southern California Trojans) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ...

, would finish in the top 2 of the BCS standings and meet in the Rose Bowl. None of the other conference champions that earned an automatic bid were available either, as those teams would go to the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

s. The Fiesta Bowl was left to take the 2 teams that earned BCS at-large bids, Ohio State of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

and independent Notre Dame.

External links

ESPN report
{{Ohio State Buckeyes bowl game navbox

Fiesta Bowl Notre Dame Fighting Irish football bowl games Ohio State Buckeyes football bowl games Fiesta January 2006 sports events in the United States