2008 FedEx Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BCS Bowl Game 74th Orange Bowl |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Date | January 3, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Season | 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Dolphin Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Location | Miami Gardens, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||
MVP | Aqib Talib, Kansas | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Favorite | Virginia Tech by 2½ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
National anthem | Katharine McPhee | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Halftime show | ZZ Top, DJ Irie and various high school marching bands | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 74,111 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Payout | US$17 million per team | ||||||||||||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Network | FOX | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Announcers | Kenny Albert, Darryl Johnston and Barry Alvarez | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Kansas Jayhawks on January 3, 2008, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Spread bettors favored Virginia Tech by three points, but in a game dominated by defensive and special teams play, Kansas defeated Virginia Tech 24–21. The game was part of the 2007–2008 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was the concluding game of the season for both teams. This 74th edition of the Orange Bowl was televised in the United States on FOX and was watched by more than eight million viewers.
The game between the fifth-ranked ACC champion Virginia Tech Hokies and the eighth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks from the Big 12 Conference (Big 12) was played at neutral-site Dolphins Stadium. Tech served as the home team in the contest. Virginia Tech automatically qualified for the Orange Bowl by virtue of the ACC's tie-in with the bowl, while Orange Bowl selected Kansas over West Virginia—which had been upset by then 4–7 Pittsburgh—and conference rival Missouri. Two weeks after Kansas's selection, controversy erupted when a deal was revealed to put 4th-ranked Oklahoma against Virginia Tech. The deal was vetoed by BCS commissioners, and the selection of Kansas was upheld.