The Fiesta Bowl game in January between...
The Fiesta Bowl game in January between Penn State and Miami, Fla., for college football’s 1986 national championship set records for net payouts to the two teams, plus economic impact and television viewership by households.
The game last Jan. 2 at Sun Devil Stadium at Tempe, Ariz., saw Penn State beat Miami, 14-10, and the schools received $2.4 million each--a bowl record for net payments, said John Junker, the Fiesta Bowl’s associate executive director.
The game also set a record for economic impact in Arizona with an estimated total of $75 million, Junker said.
He added that 21,940,000 households per minute were tuned into the game, giving the Fiesta Bowl the record for TV viewership for a college sporting event.
The game, however, ranked third in total viewership behind the 1978 and 1986 Rose Bowls.
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