The 1988 Freedom Bowl in Anaheim, California, pitted former Mountain States Conference rivals BYU and Colorado for the first time in a bowl game. It was only the second time the two teams met one another in football since the Buffaloes joined the Big Eight forty years earlier; the Buffaloes were favored in this bowl by three points.
BYU (8–4, 5–3 WAC, third) came into the game in a bit of a tailspin after losing three of its final four regular season games. Colorado (8–3, 4–3 Big 8, fourth) was a program on the rise, but a year away from becoming a fixture in the top ten.