The Utes were the first Pac-12 team to visit SMU since December 1967, when California played there in a tournament when that league was known as the Pac-8. The Mustangs hadn’t played a team from the Pac-10 since losing at No. 3 Stanford on Nov. 18, 1998, and hadn’t won against a team from that conference in their last five chances since beating Cal at the Kentucky Invitational in December 1979.
Utah had won all three previous meetings against SMU, all those games coming during the 1996-97 season when the Utes were ranked in the Top 10 all three times.