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Washington State, Utah draw evening kickoff for Sept. 28 game in Salt Lake City

Washington State Cougars wide receiver Dezmon Patmon (12) runs the ball for a touchdown against Utah during the first half of a college football game on Saturday, September 29, 2018, at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

College football fans out east will have to bend their curfew to catch one of the marquee games of the Pac-12 season next Saturday.

A Sept. 28 game pitting No. 10 Utah against No. 19 Washington State will kick off at 7 p.m. Pacific time, WSU announced Monday. The game at Rice-Eccles Stadium is set to air on FS1.

Next weekend’s interdivisional matchup between the Utes and Cougars could go a long way in determining who represents the Pac-12 North and the South in the conference title game, held in Decemer at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

And as of now, it’s one of just two matchups that day featuring ranked teams, meaning WSU-Utah could draw an appearance from ESPN’s College GameDay show, which hasn’t been out west this season and hasn’t been to Salt Lake City since October 28, 2016, when the Utes hosted Washington.

No. 21 Virginia is playing at No. 7 Notre Dame the same day, but it’s unlikely the show would travel to South Bend, Indiana, seeing as that College GameDay will feature ND’s game at Georgia this Saturday.

Many WSU fans will bemoan the fact that FOX chose a game between USC and Washington for its 12:30 p.m. primetime slot, rather than the game between the Cougars and the Utes. The conference also announced kickoff times and TV slots for Stanford’s game at Oregon State (4 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) and UCLA’s game at Arizona (7:30 p.m., ESPN).