Typically the Independence Bowl featured teams from the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 Conference, but the entire post-season bowl picture was thrown into chaos after a brawl between Clemson (Atlantic Coast Conference) and South Carolina (SEC) caused both teams, which had been bowl eligible, to remove themselves from consideration.[2] With the SEC no longer able to supply enough bowl-eligible teams, Independence Bowl organizers looked elsewhere, and settled on Miami, coming off a second consecutive East Division championship in the Mid-American Conference.[3]
Iowa State came back from a 2-10 2003 season to finish 6-5. A Big 12 team, Iowa State normally would have gone to the Houston Bowl, but with fellow conference members Texas and Oklahoma headed for BCS bowls the remaining Big 12 teams received bids to better games. Iowa State accepted the bid on December 6, 2004. Iowa State previously played in the 2001 Independence Bowl, losing in the last seconds to Alabama 14-13.[4]
