Game’s Stakes Are High--for August : College football: Colorado plays Tennessee at Anaheim Stadium today. The game might have trouble living up to its hype as a possible harbinger of the national championship.

Amid claims that its outcome could have national championship implications, the Disneyland Pigskin Classic springs to life today and with it the 1990 college football season.

The game between Colorado and Tennessee will start at noon at Anaheim Stadium. The hype, the kind saved usually for the postseason bowls, not preseason made-for-TV specials, started last week.

A quick review:

--Colorado Coach Bill McCartney announced solemnly that the Pigskin Classic could determine the No. 1 team at season’s end.

“Let’s face it, this game has big stakes in it,” he said. “The winner is going to be in great shape nationally. But there’s going to be a price to be paid (by) the loser.”

McCartney is right--sort of. No one wants to start the season with a loss, but there are 11 more regular-season games after this one, plenty of time for a comeback. And being undefeated isn’t always what it is cracked up to be. Colorado finished its 1989 schedule 11-0, lost to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl and dropped to fourth in the polls. Miami, a midseason loser to Florida State, recovered in time to advance to the Sugar Bowl, beat Alabama and won a national title.

The key word to remember about today’s game: August.

--More hype. The two wire service preseason polls have picked Colorado no higher than fifth and Tennessee no higher than eighth, which is consistent with the various computer rankings, power ratings and assorted views of almost all the football publications.

The somewhat obscure GamePlan magazine breathlessly touted Colorado as its preseason No. 1 and Tennessee No. 2, an item not lost on Pigskin Classic organizers--who immediately began advertising the game as a meeting between the top two teams in the country.

--Joe Garten, Colorado’s All-American guard, shocked everyone, including Tennessee Coach Johnny Majors, by saying that Tennessee had “a great defense.” It is a description not often used when referring to the Volunteers, who finished seventh in overall defense in the Southeastern Conference last season and were nowhere to be found on the national charts.

“I’m flat-out honest,” said Garten, after being asked to repeat the assessment a second time for accuracy. “You don’t go 11-1 without having a great defense.”

Alabama scored 47 points against Tennessee last season. Louisiana State scored 39. Arkansas had 27 and Mississippi had 21. Garten’s impregnable Tennessee defense was so great in 1989 that Majors hired a new defensive coordinator at season’s end.

--And then there was Majors himself, who passed out superlatives with every other sentence. Tennessee’s Antone Davis and Charles McRae, said Majors, are the finest pair of offensive tackles “I’ve seen in my coaching career.”

Running back Chuck Webb is as fine a talent “as I’ve seen in a long time.” Colorado’s Darian Hagan is the most exciting option quarterback “I’ve ever seen.” And he said that of all the season openers he has coached, today’s game is “the most difficult challenge I’ve had in my . . . career.”

Majors meant well.

Despite the overenthusiasm, the game does provide reasons for watching. Begin with Hagan, who is only the sixth player in NCAA history to rush and pass for more than 1,000 yards in one season.

At Hagan’s disposal is an experienced offensive line that features Garten, an All-American, and Mark Vander Poel (6-feet-8, 300 pounds), an All-Big Eight selection last year.

As for the backfield, things get slightly more complicated. For instance, what do Ralphie III, the school’s buffalo mascot, and preseason All-American tailback Eric Bieniemy have in common today? Answer: neither will see time on the Anaheim Stadium playing field.

Ralphie has been banished to a makeshift corral on orders from the Angels, and Bieniemy has been sidelined on orders from McCartney, who suspended him for one game because of an altercation at his parents’ home in July. Mike Pritchard and Michael Simmons will receive most of the handoffs in Bieniemy’s absence.

Colorado’s defense is anchored by outside linebackers Alfred Williams and Kanavis McGhee--both seniors and both tough to slip past.

“They really don’t have a glaring weakness on their defense,” said Tennessee quarterback Andy Kelly, who has been viewing films of Colorado games since last spring.

Of course, Tennessee isn’t without its weapons. Webb, only a sophomore in eligibility, rushed for 1,236 yards last season, despite starting only six games. Majors compares Webb’s running style to that of Walter Payton, and McCartney compares him to Barry Sanders. Enigmatic but gifted, Webb is the key to Tennessee’s offense.

The wide receivers--Alvin Harper and Carl Pickens--are standard Tennessee issue: extremely fast and nimble. The offensive line returns all its starters but one.

Tennessee’s defense is much more suspect. Larry Lacewell, the new coordinator, is considered an option specialist, but he will have to make do with a defense that features first-time starters at six positions, three of them in the secondary.

Still, in a well-intentioned gesture, Kelly did say that practices are a little more competitive these days. In the past, Tennessee’s offense could do what it wanted against the predictable defense in scrimmages.

“But last spring, this fall, they’ve given us a little trouble,” he said.

Not exactly the ringing endorsement Garten offered, but it will do. After all, hype is hype.