Stanford Balks; Freedom Bowl Eyes WAC Runner-Up

Stanford, the team Freedom Bowl officials had been eyeing for weeks, apparently has backed out of the game in favor of the Aloha Bowl.

“Stanford had verbally committed if it had won its game Saturday (a 27-10 victory over UCLA), and the Pac-10 even told us it was a deal, but in the last couple of hours it is slipping,” said Don Andersen, Freedom Bowl executive director. “All of a sudden somebody’s word doesn’t mean anything anymore.”

Kansas, Tulsa and Baylor are considered the leading candidates to replace Stanford.

In another development, the Western Athletic Conference runner-up--the loser of Saturday’s San Diego State-Brigham Young game--has been assured of an invitation to the Freedom Bowl, according to a bowl source.

Although Andersen would neither confirm nor deny the deal, he said the Freedom Bowl remains intrigued with the WAC.

“We’re very interested in the WAC runner-up and have had discussions along those lines,” Andersen said.

The bowl, scheduled Dec. 30 in Anaheim Stadium, plans to send at least two representatives--Rob Halvaks, associate director, and Craig Russell, selection committee member--to the SDSU-BYU game.

Official bowl bids cannot be extended until noon Sunday, otherwise the bowls face the threat of a $250,000 fine. The Freedom Bowl payout to each of the participating teams is $650,000.