Six hours waiting overnight in a deserted airport for a twice postponed charter flight after a disappointing 41-34 loss at Boise State last fall left the University of Hawai'i football team with more than fuming frustration. It also provided the Warriors with clarity of purpose.

Mindful that they would have most of their starters returning and that the 2007 game would be played at Aloha Stadium, the Warriors realized early on what most of us came to grasp eventually: That today's 4:05 p.m. meeting with the Broncos could have Richter Scale-like implications on the national stage.

"We circled the (Boise State) game on the calendar," quarterback Colt Brennan said. "We did it right when we got stuck in the Boise airport for all that time."

The rest of us put a star next to it in January, when Brennan's announcement that he would remain at UH for his senior year prompted open season on dreams UH has rarely dared to entertain before: an unbeaten season and January bowl appearance.

Fifteen months later, the No. 15 Warriors, a school-record 10 consecutive victories in the books, and No. 19 Boise State, with a 10-1 mark, face the most anticipated showdown in UH history and the most meaningful in the 46 seasons of play in the Western Athletic Conference.

It is a collision so compelling that it has elbowed its way onto the national stage. The game has been sold out for more than two weeks, ESPN2 is here to show it, the Orange Bowl is on hand from Florida to scout it and national media have been talking it up. WAC "Championship" T-shirts are popping up around town and more than 2,000 Bronco fans have brought an Orange Wave of electricity here.

No small wonder when, to the winner immediately goes an outright WAC championship, which would be a first in UH's 29 years of conference membership and a fifth consecutive (four outright) for the Broncos. It also opens up the possibility of a lucrative berth in the Bowl Championship Series for the winner.

Boise State became the Cinderella of college football with its 13-0 run through the Fiesta Bowl last year and UH would desperately like to be fitted for the same slipper and bank a similar windfall.

Of the approximately $6 million the WAC would realize from having a representative in a BCS game — likely the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans or Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. — the participating team receives 70 percent. After Boise State paid its bills, it took home an estimated $3 million, plowing some of it into facilities this year. At UH, where four of the last five announced budgets have been in the red and head coach June Jones is due for a new contract, that kind of money would come in handy.

But more than money, a victory over Boise State — especially if accompanied by a regular-season-ending win over Washington next week — would bring the validation that UH has long sought but never achieved.

Only in 1992 has UH played in a Mainland-based bowl or finished in the Top 20 nationally. Never have the Warriors had as big a share of the national limelight as they've seen this year or as much need to prove it warranted.

The confluence of Brennan's surprising return surrounded by an experienced, stellar supporting cast and an abuser-friendly schedule have given the Warriors a once-in-a-blue moon opportunity and who knows when it might come again.

The last time UH stood at such a crossroads was 1981 when the Warriors opened with seven consecutive victories, rose to No. 16 in the polls, commanded a national TV stage and had Sports Illustrated on scene to see if WAC bully Brigham Young could be unseated. But UH couldn't muster a touchdown in a 13-3 loss so deflating that the hangover cost them a loss against Pacific the following week.

A generation later the Warriors are back, this time blessed with the most prolific offense in the nation and opportunities unimagined back in the days when they were called "Rainbows."

These Warriors have come a long way since September 2006 when special teams flubs cost them the game at Boise State. They've won 20 of 21 games. Along the way they've amazed us with their firepower and impressed us with their focus and resolve. They have summoned last-minute wonders and overtime magic. All to reach where they stand today, toe to toe with reigning WAC giant Boise State, their tormentor the last six years, and on the doorstep of history.