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The 2007 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Boise State University Broncos from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the East Carolina University Pirates from Conference USA (C-USA) at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 23, 2007. The game was the final competition of the 2007 football season for each team and resulted in a 41–38 East Carolina victory, even though sportsbooks favored Boise State to win by 10½ points.〔 Many experts believed East Carolina to be big underdogs to Boise State, which had defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. The 2007 Hawaii Bowl paid $750,000 to each team's conference in exchange for their participation.〔 〕 The game, which was the sixth edition of the bowl, was expected to be an offensive shootout. Boise State averaged 42.4 points during the 2007 season, while East Carolina averaged 31. That expectation turned out to be justified as East Carolina took a 31–14 lead in the first half. The Broncos fought back in the second half, however, tying the score at 38 late in the fourth quarter after East Carolina's Chris Johnson fumbled the ball, allowing Bronco defender Marty Tadman to recover the ball and return it 47 yards for a touchdown. The game remained tied until the final moments as East Carolina's Ben Hartman made a 34–yard game-winning field goal as time expired. The attendance of 30,467 was the largest crowd to attend a Hawaii Bowl game that did not feature the host school. Boise State's loss dropped them to a final 2007 record of 10–3, while East Carolina's final-game win earned them a record of 8–5. == Selection process == The Hawaii football team normally receives an automatic bid to the game unless the team is selected to participate in a BCS game or is not bowl eligible. If either of those events happen, the WAC selects its next-highest ranked team to compete in the game. In 2007, Hawaii was selected to play on January 1, 2008 in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, marking just the second time since the creation of the Hawaii Bowl that Hawaii would not participate. The only previous time that Hawaii failed to make an appearance was in 2005, when the Warriors finished their season with a 5–7 record and were not eligible for a bowl game. Conference USA fields the other team in the Hawaii Bowl. The Liberty Bowl has the first selection of C-USA teams, and GMAC Bowl picks second. After those two are picked, the conference provides a team for the Hawaii Bowl and three other bowls. In 2007, the University of Central Florida accepted the bid to compete in the Liberty Bowl, Tulsa accepted the bid to compete in the GMAC Bowl, leaving East Carolina to be selected by the Hawaii Bowl on December 1, 2007. Boise State was undefeated in conference play going into the final game of the regular season, and suffered just one out-of-conference loss. In that final game, BSU lost 39–27 to undefeated Hawaii.〔 〕 Following the game, the Broncos decided to travel to Hawaii, rather than play at home in the Humanitarian Bowl, which is located at Boise's home stadium in Boise, Idaho and features a matchup between a WAC team and one from the Atlantic Coast Conference.〔 〕 Boise ended its regular season 10–2 overall and 7–1 in conference play. East Carolina, meanwhile, had been in first place in the C-USA's East Division with just two games remaining. A loss to Marshall University in that second-to-last game, however, put ECU into second place in its division, and thus out of competition for the Conference USA Championship. After winning against conference foe Tulane in the final game of the season, the Pirates decided to travel to the Hawaii Bowl. East Carolina ended the regular season 7–5 overall, and 6–2 in conference play.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2007 Hawaii Bowl」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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