This particular Fiesta Bowl was played on January 2, 1987, and pitted the #1 Miami Hurricanes against the #2 Penn State Nittany Lions. Since the game would determine the college football national champion for the 1986 season, the organizers of the Fiesta Bowl — which, since it established itself as a January bowl, had been played in the afternoon — decided to move the game back from New Year's Day to January 2 and play it in the early evening (Arizona time) so it could be carried in primetime in the Eastern and Central time zones by NBC, the Fiesta Bowl's then-television carrier.

The 1987 Fiesta Bowl drew a 25.1 rating for NBC, which the bowl organizers claimed was a record for any college football game; the 1980 Rose Bowl, which NBC also aired, drew a 28.6 rating but was seen in fewer homes than the Fiesta Bowl, which was viewed in 21.9 million versus the 21.8 million the Rose Bowl had been viewed in.

Although the Fiesta Bowl had been played on New Year's Day since the 1982 game, it was not considered by many to be a major bowl game. Instead, that distinction was given to four other New Year's bowls— the Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Orange Bowl were all considered major bowls. Each of these bowls was required to take at least one conference's champion as per their charters regardless of the team's rank; the Southwest Conference champion hosted the Cotton Bowl, the Big Ten Conference and Pac-10 Conference played each other in the Rose Bowl, the Big 8 Conference champion hosted the Orange Bowl, and the Southeastern Conference champion hosted the Sugar Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl, meanwhile, had not had a tie in with a conference since the Western Athletic Conference's contract with the game expired in 1978. Although in most of the years since a team in the western United States received an invitation to the bowl, the Fiesta Bowl was free to extend an invitation to anyone who they desired.

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