updated 12:13 p.m. ET Oct. 18, 2006

MIAMI - University of Miami season ticket holder Carlos Alvarez sat in the stands at the Orange Bowl, his loyalties conflicted as he watched the Hurricanes play his alma mater, Florida International University.

“I’ve been a Hurricane fan for many, many, many years,” Miami-Dade County’s mayor said. “But I was rooting for FIU. Up until four years ago, they didn’t even have a team.”

Separated by only 9 miles, Florida International and the University of Miami are worlds apart when it comes to football. The cross-town matchup of underdog vs. perennial power stirred strong sentiments when they met for the first time Saturday night, and emotions erupted in the second half with a bench-clearing brawl.

No one was injured, but the melee has been played repeatedly on national television, hurting the image of both schools.

“It was outrageous,” said Gov. Jeb Bush, who considers Miami his adopted hometown. “It was horrible, a complete embarrassment. As a Hurricane fan I’ve gotten enormous grief, and justifiably so.”

For Miami, the fight reinforced a stereotype dating to the 1980s, when coach Jimmy Johnson’s trash-talking teams developed a rogue reputation that subsequent coaches have struggled to quell.

But the notoriety is new to Florida International, a commuter school striving to escape UM’s shadow since being founded in 1972.

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“It’s unfortunate that some folks who have never heard of Florida International University now associate it with what occurred at the Orange Bowl on Saturday night,” said Alvarez, class of ’74. “FIU has made great strides as a university. It has a law school and is going to have a medical school. It’s a first-rate school.”

With nearly 38,000 students from more than 130 countries on a campus surrounded by suburban sprawl, Florida International is more than double the size of Miami. Programs at the state school range from hospitality management and creative writing to biomedical engineering. Alumni include U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell and Stephanie Burns, the president and chief executive of Dow Corning Corp.

Annual in-state tuition at Florida International is $3,400, compared with $30,000 at Miami, a private school founded in 1925 in verdant Coral Gables. Singer Gloria Estefan, actor Sylvester Stallone and NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry went to Miami, which boasts a large medical school, a world-class oceanography program — and five national titles in football. Its president is Donna Shalala, who was President Clinton’s health and human services secretary.

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The game Saturday offered Florida International an opportunity to make a big splash at the expense of its more renowned neighbor. The winless Golden Panthers’ roster is filled with players passed over by Miami recruiters, and there were plenty of former high school rivals on the two teams.

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