1987 Fiesta Bowl

1987 Sunkist Fiesta Bowl
16th edition National Championship Game
Miami Hurricanes Penn State Nittany Lions (11–0) (11–0) Independent Independent 10 14 Head coach:  Jimmy Johnson Head coach:  Joe Paterno AP Coaches 1 1 AP Coaches 2 2
1 2 3 4 Total Miami 0 7 0 3 10 Penn State 0 7 0 7 14
Date	January 2, 1987
Season	1986
Stadium	Sun Devil Stadium
Location	Tempe, Arizona
MVP	D.J. Dozier      (PSU RB) Shane Conlan (PSU LB)
Favorite	Miami by 6½ points[1]
National anthem	Penn State Blue Band
Referee	Jimmy Harper (SEC)
Halftime show	Band of the Hour, Penn State Blue Band
Attendance	73,098
United States TV coverage
Network	NBC
Announcers	Charlie Jones, Bob Griese, and Jimmy Cefalo
Nielsen ratings	24.9
Fiesta Bowl  < 1986  1988 >  College Football Championship Game  < 1986 1988 >

The 1987 Fiesta Bowl was a college football bowl game that served as the final game of the 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season. Part of the 1986–87 bowl game season, the 1987 Fiesta Bowl also served as the National Championship Game, between the No. 1 ranked Miami Hurricanes, and the No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions. It was the bowl's 16th edition, played annually since 1971 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

Played at night on Friday, January 2, it matched the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes and #2 Penn State Nittany Lions. As the first part of NBC's tripleheader of bowl games on New Year's Day in the previous five years, the Fiesta Bowl had kicked off at 11:30 a.m. MST and led into the Rose Bowl. Since this year's game would determine the national championship, organizers decided to play it a day later on January 2; the kickoff was just after 6 p.m. MST, prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones.

It 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.^[2]