Washington Set to Take Bid to Freedom Bowl, May Face Tennessee

By MIKE PENNER and STEVE DOLAN

Nov. 18, 1985 12 AM PT

<i> Times Staff Writers </i>

The University of Washington is set to accept an invitation to the Freedom Bowl on Saturday when bids can “officially” be extended. The Freedom Bowl, in its second year, will be played Dec. 30 in Anaheim Stadium.

Among the possible opponents, and certainly the opponent most preferred, is Tennessee, if the Volunteers do not go to the Sugar Bowl as Southeastern Conference champion. Tennessee (6-1-2) must lose either of its remaining two games to be placed in the Freedom Bowl picture. Tennessee is currently in second place in the SEC at 3-1, behind 4-1-1 LSU. LSU has finished its conference schedule, but the Volunteers have games remaining with Kentucky (5-5) and Vanderbilt (3-6-1).

If Tennessee wins its last two games and plays in the Sugar Bowl, the Freedom Bowl will resort to a back-up list, which includes Arizona, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia.

“With Washington, we’re looking pretty good,” Tom Starr, Freedom Bowl executive director said. “We’ve wanted them all along. We wanted a Pac-10 team that would draw. Washington will probably finish second and they’re the only Pac-10 team to have beaten UCLA this year. It’s a giant step for us.”

Of Tennessee, Starr said: “If Tennessee wins on out, it will go to the Sugar. But if they slip, Tennessee has told us we are their next choice.”

Mike Lude, Washington athletic director, said his school would “most certainly be interested” if tendered a Freedom Bowl bid. “At the University of Washington, our goal every year is to be in a bowl game,” Lude said. “If offered the opportunity, we’d go.”

Lude said Washington (6-4) has also considered the Holiday Bowl, the Sun Bowl and the Cherry Bowl. But the Holiday Bowl has received commitments from Arizona State and Arkansas and the Huskies would like to spend their postseason in Southern California.

“We like the Freedom Bowl,” Lude said. “We like the location, the geography and Orange County. It’s a new bowl and last year (a 55-14 Iowa victory over Texas), it had some weather problems. But it has the potential to be one of the outstanding bowl in Division 1-AA.”

Arizona State was being considered by several bowls but made its decision Sunday night to attend the Holiday Bowl. The game will be played Dec. 22 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“All along, I knew that was probably where Arizona State would go,” said Starr. “We made an effort for them, but it didn’t surprise me when they chose the Holiday Bowl.”

Arizona State has won its last six games under first-year coach, John Cooper. The Sun Devils are led by quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst, a graduate of La Mesa’s Grossmont High.

According to sources in Arizona, Holiday Bowl officials were attempting to make a package deal with Arizona State and UCLA. Under the agreement, whichever team did not win the Pacific 10 would have played in the Holiday Bowl.

Though Arizona State agreed with the arrangement, UCLA balked. The Bruins wanted to play in the Aloha Bowl in Hawaii if they did not play in the Rose Bowl, sources said.

Arkansas was rated ninth in the country before it was upset Saturday by Texas A&M;, 10-6. The Razorbacks thus dropped out of the race in the Southwest Conference, whose winner qualifies for the Cotton Bowl.

“After Arkansas lost, it must have thought it wanted to go somewhere fast,” Starr said. “They really jumped on the Holiday Bowl. Evidently, they wanted to go somewhere nice.”

The Holiday Bowl is inviting two at-large teams for the first time in its eight-year existence. In the game’s seven previous years, the Western Athletic Conference champion automatically qualified.

Meanwhile, Coach Joe Paterno of top-ranked Penn State said the Nittany Lions met and decided to accept an Orange Bowl bid, if offered. That would pit Penn State against either No. 2 Nebraska or Oklahoma for the national championship.

“The team’s sentiment was that their leading choice, if they received a bid, would be to go to the Orange Bowl,” Dave Baker, Penn State sports information director, told the Associated Press.

“It was not a formal vote,” Baker said. “It was a sentiment that that would be their leading choice right now and the reason being that it would appear right now that bowl would offer the highest ranked team that we could play.”

The Orange Bowl in Miami invites the winner of the Big Eight. Nebraska (9-1), ranked No. 2 in the country, leads the Big Eight by a half-game over Oklahoma (7-1). They play Saturday at Norman, Okla., in a game that, if Nebraska wins, will settle the Big Eight championship.

The Nittany Lions (10-0) travel to Pittsburgh Saturday for a game with Pitt.

The game will be televised beginning at 4:45 p.m. (PST) on ESPN, almost two hours after bowl bids are officially extended.

A look at the probable bowl game matchups:

Rose: UCLA vs. Iowa.

Orange: Oklahoma or Nebraska vs. Penn State.

Sugar: LSU or Tennessee vs. Miami (Fla.)

Cotton: Baylor vs. Auburn.

Fiesta: Michigan vs. Nebraska or Oklahoma.

Holiday: Arkansas vs. Arizona State.

Aloha: Alabama vs. Texas.

Bluebonnet: Air Force vs. Texas A&M.;

Gator: Florida State vs. Oklahoma State.