The story of one postseason college football game, as told through social media: 

Inside the spaceship for tonight’s game. twitter.com/slmandel/statu…

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 3, 2013

Chip Kelly’s postgame interview tonight should be a blast. Nothing but death stares and no comments.

— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) January 3, 2013

It’s not overkill in the slightest to remind you all again that this could be a semifinal game for the national championship.

— Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey) January 4, 2013

To beat Oregon: have Stanford’s front seven. To beat K-State: hope Collin Klein duffs it a lot. Neither team will lose!

— Jason Kirk (@JasonKirkSBN) January 4, 2013

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The return of the Oregon Ducks to the Fiesta Bowl means one thing: the return of more Oregon Duck-versus-Tostitos photo ops. (Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

The Fiesta Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the last BCS football contest we’ll see before Monday night’s championship game. It has a kid brother, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. It sounds like it used to be a pretty fun place to work. How can I become a bowl tycoon? Because that sounds like the best job. The easiest way seems to be by starting a bowl game yourself. There have to be at least two or three stadiums in Florida that aren’t already being used for a bowl this week. If we just showed up at one with Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee State in tow and said we were there for the bowl game, would anybody really ask too many questions?

• Where will this game be played? Glendale’s University of Phoenix Stadium, home to the Arizona Cardinals.

• When is it on television? Tonight’s game is scheduled for 8:30 ET, and will feature the top-tier vocal stylings of Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe on ESPN. The game will also be shown on ESPN Deportes and streamed on WatchESPN.

• Whom does it feature? The Fiesta Bowl takes the Big 12 champ, if that team is not in the title game, versus an at-large selection.

• What about this year? Two 11-1 squads in the Oregon Ducks and Kansas State Wildcats.

• Does the bowl have a social media presence? It is real, and it is saucy:
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Former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker (right) will reportedly plead guilty Tuesday to state and federal charges. (AP)

John Junker, ousted Fiesta Bowl CEO, will formalize his shaming of the yellow-blazer brotherhood on Tuesday, according to the Arizona Republic. The paper spoke to Junker’s defense attorney, who says his client will plead guilty to state and federal felony charges stemming from his use of bowl employees and resources to influence politicians in the area.

Sadly, however, we’ll be deprived of the privilege of hearing any more from Junker regarding the necessity of taking a bowl security consultant to a Phoenix strip club. More from the Republic report: ”Despite accusations in the report that Junker used bowl funds for questionable spending, he will not be charged with any crimes related to spending at the Fiesta Bowl under the plea agreement.”

We have always wanted tips on how to best $30,000 for our own birthday party, and will have to take our quest elsewhere. RIP, John Junker administration, 2000-2011. You sound like you were a super entertaining place to work, for a while.

The Insight Bowl trophy is awful, but as a former pizza bowl, the institution deserves protecting.

Lauded in this space just a month ago for clinging to its dot-com sponsor for a decade following the collapse of the tech bubble, the Insight Bowl suddenly finds itself set adrift, in a basket on a strange doorstep, with a note pinned on its blanket reading “free to good home, for money.” A quick adoption fact sheet, for those of you considering placing this lovable game  under your organization’s banner:

• Family history: Less than ideal. Cousin to the famously corrupt Fiesta Bowl, and at times seems neglected by caretakers. The website is relegated to a folder on the Fiesta Bowl’s site, and should interested parties click through to buy merchandise, they’re redirected to the Fiesta Bowl store, which is (sorry, OU fans ) currently splashed with Cowpoke victory swag, wall to wall, with a lone lousy banner ad strung up for Sooners products.

• Trauma history: Relentlessly awful trophy. Aired for a time on the NFL Network. Has been known to lash out at the teams themselves. Has not received all its shots, but after hosting Tim Brewster two years in a row you’re pretty much inoculated against the big stuff.

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Imagine how Oklahoma State players will regard the Fiesta Bowl trophy if they actually win it. (AP)

The 2012 Fiesta Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown, check out Andy Staples’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? Welcome, one and all, to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, now with markedly less corruption, we think.

• Where will this game be played? Inside a taco salad shell the size of which the world has never known, nestled in an undisclosed location in the Arizona desert.

• For real? No, but Tostitos has been the title sponsor of this game since the mid-90s, so don’t think it hasn’t been working on that technology. The game will be held, for now, in University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, home of the NFL’s Cardinals.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on Monday, January 2. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? The Big 12 champion plus an at-large BCS selection.

• What about this year? Stanford and Oklahoma State, both 11-1.

• Who will call the game? Matt Millen, for some reason, with long-suffering teammates Sean McDonough and Heather Cox.

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Tyler Tettleton and MAC East champion Ohio survived Bowling Green 29-28 on a 23-yard field goal as time expired. (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• Ohio 29, Bowling Green 28: Your 2011 MAC East champions didn’t put on quite as dramatic a performance as we’ve seen from certain other recent weeknight conference games, but there was suspense to be had, in the form of a game-winning field goal with three seconds remaining on the clock. 23 yards! Caliente! [RECAP | BOX]

• Western Michigan 24, Miami (Ohio) 21: You like passing? Zac Dysert and Alex Carder combined for 842 aerial yards. [RECAP | BOX]

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold: It’s been an alarming 24 hours for coaching news. The universe continues to contrive to create job openings in order to keep Houston Nutt in the SEC, with Texas A&M on a three-game losing streak and now Gary Pinkel’s DWI arrest. And New Mexico has gone and hired Bob Davie, for which we should all be grateful, as it will greatly reduce the time we have to listen to him speak on television.

• Penn State things: SI’s special report on the Jerry Sandusky case, from the latest issue of the magazine, is now available online. A new judge has been assigned following some glaring conflict of interest concerns. Police are contradicting claims made by Mike McQueary. Nobody seems to think the university’s open-records law exemption is a good idea. And read with amazement how the internet played an instigating role in the investigation.

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