Played on the blue turf, it featured the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and the Idaho Vandals, the champions of the Big West Conference.
Six weeks earlier, Idaho had defeated rival Boise State on this field by one point, scoring a two-point conversion in overtime to gain their only Big West title.
Clear skies and a high temperature of 50 °F (10 °C) greeted the teams on this Wednesday afternoon; kickoff was at one o'clock MST and the game was carried by ESPN2.
USM's Derrick Nix scored touchdown runs of 8 and 1 yards as Southern Miss took a 21–7 lead with ten minutes remaining in the half.
Idaho answered with three touchdown passes from redshirt freshman quarterback John Welsh and the Vandals surged to a 28–21 halftime lead.