Selection Process
Beginning with the 1998 football season, when the Bowl Championship Series began, the winner of the Big 12 Conference was contractually assigned to play in the Fiesta Bowl, unless ranked in the top two in which they would play in the national championship game. By winning the conference but not finishing ranked in the top two, Oklahoma was automatically assigned to the Fiesta Bowl. With Oklahoma guaranteed to play in the Fiesta Bowl, the bowl committee still had an at-large team to select.
Per the BCS selection procedure, the bowl games that lost teams to the national championship get first picks for a replacement. The Rose Bowl, after losing top ranked Ohio State, selected Illinois. Next, the Sugar Bowl selected Georgia to replace the #2 LSU Tigers. For the second selection for each bowl, per the BCS selection procedure, the game played nearest the date of the national championship had the first pick. For 2008, this was the Orange Bowl, which selected Kansas. Following the Orange Bowl's select, the Fiesta Bowl had the next pick following lastly by the Sugar Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl committee had a few teams to select from including Arizona State, Hawaiʻi, and Big East champion West Virginia. The committee chose to invite West Virginia who almost made the national championship game before losing their last regular season game. John Junker, CEO of the Fiesta Bowl, said "the selection we had was very simple." If West Virginia had not been selected by the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl would have been forced to select them, as West Virginia was guaranteed a BCS bowl berth by virtue of winning the Big East.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Fiesta Bowl
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