Colorado Will Be Freedom Bowl Backup

One day after announcing the Freedom Bowl’s preferred lineup for Dec. 30--Washington vs. Tennessee--Freedom Bowl Director Tom Starr Monday revealed Plan B, which would bring Colorado to Anaheim Stadium if Tennessee is awarded a Sugar Bowl berth.

“I talked with Bill Marolt (Colorado Athletic Director) and they’ve agreed to become our backup team,” Starr said. “Obviously, Washington-Tennessee is our No. 1 game. But if Tennessee goes to the Sugar Bowl, we wanted to have someone ready that we could go to.”

Sunday, Starr had narrowed his list of alternates to five teams: Arizona, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia. When Arizona committed to the Sun Bowl and Syracuse to the Cherry Bowl, Starr sought to strike a deal with Colorado, the Big Eight Conference’s fourth-place team at 6-4 with one game remaining.

Starr admitted that the odds favor a Washington-Colorado matchup. If Tennessee wins its last two game--against Kentucky (5-5) and Vanderbilt (3-6-1)--the Volunteers will go to the Sugar Bowl as the Southeastern Conference champions. To get Tennessee, the Freedom Bowl needs the Volunteers to lose or tie one of those games.

“You know the old saying: ‘We have two chances--slim and none--and slim went to Texas,’ ” Starr said with a laugh. “We hope they’re not that bad. Tennessee is only a 3 1/2-point favorite over Kentucky, so an upset is not totally out of reason.”

Just the same, Starr said he was glad to have Colorado in the wings.

“This gives us a link to the Big Eight,” Starr said. “That’s important. We want athletic directors, and coaches and players to spread the word about us and we’ve already gone into the Big Ten (Iowa last year), the Southwestern Conference (Texas last year) and the Pac-10 (Washington). And Colorado’s kind of a Cinderella team. They have four losses but they easily could’ve beaten Oklahoma State and Nebraska.”

Oklahoma State and Nebraska are both in contention for the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma State edged Colorado, 14-11, and Nebraska beat the Buffaloes, 17-7.

Bowl bids can officially be extended Saturday, but Starr will probably have to wait until Nov. 30--Tennessee’s last game--to finalize the matchup.

“We can’t close the deal until Tennessee either loses or wins its last two games,” Starr said.