The game had previously been scheduled for September 26, 1998, but was postponed from its original date due to Hurricane Georges striking southern Florida.
A win against Miami would have guaranteed them a chance to play for the inaugural BCS national championship, which was to be contested at the Fiesta Bowl in January 1999.
The SEC would be deciding its champion in Atlanta that day with the top-ranked team in the BCS and the Associated Press polls, undefeated Tennessee, in action against Mississippi State.
A players' plan by the Bruins to wear black wristbands against the Hurricanes to protest falling minority enrollment at UC-system schools was the subject of a series of emotional team meetings the week leading up to the game.
After finishing with a losing record in 1997, the first time the Hurricanes had done so since 1979, they managed to return to form somewhat and entered the rankings after a win over then-#13 West Virginia on October 24.
Needing a win to secure their first outright Big East conference championship in five years, which would have earned them the conference's automatic BCS bid and a spot in the Orange Bowl, Miami instead suffered one of their worst losses in program history as Syracuse won 66-15, knocking the Hurricanes from the rankings altogether, and giving the Big East title and BCS bid to the Donovan McNabb-led Orangemen.
After a late rally by Miami to tighten the score to 45–42, UCLA began driving with hopes of running out the clock, leading to the most pivotal play of the game.
chants, since the loss meant that the Bruins would, as the Pac-10 champion, have to settle for representing the conference in the annual Rose Bowl Game against Wisconsin.