The climate of college football was different in 1986 , as there were far more independent schools ; that season , twenty-four teams competed as independents , as opposed to four in 2017 . Some high-profile programs were among those twenty-four teams , with Penn State and Miami being two of them . Since these teams had no ties to any conference , bowl committees were free to invite them as they saw fit . For instance , Penn State was invited to the previous year 's Orange Bowl while Miami received an invite to the Sugar Bowl
independent
NCAA Division I FBS independent schools
1987 Fiesta Bowl