of the Pac-10 Conference Championship. Their won–loss record tied that of the USC Trojans, but the Trojans won the tie-breaker by virtue of winning their game against ASU. The Trojans went to the 2008 Rose Bowl as conference champion and the Holiday Bowl selected ASU. The Sun Devils finished the regular season ranked number 11 in the final BCS rankings, number 11 in Coaches poll and number 12 in the AP rankings while Texas was number 19 in the BCS and number 17 in both the coaches and AP rankings. When the Holiday Bowl chose ASU, the Sun Devils head Coach Dennis Erickson said, "We're excited about going to the Holiday Bowl. We get to play Texas. That's a great program, a historic program, and great opportunity for us. As I said last night after the game, we have no control over the BCS; all we can do is go out there and play football. Which we did a good job of 10 times. That's something that they have to deal with and they dealt with it and they did the best they can do with they system. This is just how it is. Our players are really excited about going where we're going." Vice President for ASU Athletics Lisa Love said. "Playing a perennial power like the University of Texas, December 27 in the Holiday Bowl, which, by the way, is wonderfully hosted by that committee. This is a great, step forward. This is exactly what we wanted to do. We are very pleased to be mentioned in the same breath as a program like Texas." The Sun Devils were competing in a bowl game for the fourth-year in a row and were appearing in the Holiday Bowl for the third time in program history. The Sun Devils lost to Arkansas, 18–17 in 1985 and to Kansas State, 34–27 in 2002. The Sun Devils held a 12–9–1 all-time bowl record. Their most recent appearance was a 42 21 loss to Hawaii in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl at the end of the 2006 season. Game summary One week prior to the game, Las Vegas casinos favored Texas by 2 points. Rivals.com favored Texas by 1½ points. The game was played Thursday, December 27, 2007 at 7:00 pm Central in San Diego's 70,561-seat Qualcomm Stadium and the official attendance was 64,020. ESPN provided both national television and national radio coverage of