2008 Orange Bowl
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.
2008 Fiesta Bowl
On 2007-12-17, Stewart Mandel, a writer for "Sports Illustrated", revealed that Oklahoma's athletic director, Joe Castiglione had tried to arrange for Oklahoma to face the highest ranked opponent available, which would have been Virginia Tech, in the Orange Bowl. This would have pitted the #3 team against the #4 team. Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe contacted BCS officials (which includes the 11 conference heads and the athletic director of Notre Dame) to see if this could be done. Michael Slive, then the BCS commissioner and SEC commissioner, considered the idea but it was ultimately rejected. There was no word on which officials voted against the proposition. Beebe stated he did not agree with the decision, but respected the views of those against it. Castiglione stated that he hopes "at some point in time we can hear an explanation of why this wasn't possible given the fact the rules provided the opportunity if it was in everybody's best interest." Mandel said that two of his sources speculated that the commissioner "feared such a matchup might damage the legitimacy of the Ohio State-LSU title game." Slive said "there weren't such compelling circumstances as to merit a change."