WSU Will Open With Colorado Cougars Alter Schedule For TV Matchup, Add Tourney For Men’s Basketball

Thu., Dec. 14, 1995

By Steve Bergum steveb@spokesman.com

Washington State won’t exactly ease into either its football or men’s basketball schedules next year, according to announcements made Wednesday by university officials.

Athletic director Rick Dickson confirmed that the football team will open its 1996 schedule Aug. 31 with a non-conference game at Colorado.

The game, which will be televised live by ABC-TV, is part of a home-and-home agreement that will bring the Buffaloes to Martin Stadium in 2001, Dickson explained.

In addition, Cougar men’s basketball coach Kevin Eastman announced that his team will be one of eight playing in next season’s post-Christmas Rainbow Classic in Honolulu.

In order to lock in next year’s football opener at Colorado, the Cougars were forced to drop Fresno State off next year’s schedule, Dickson explained.

Under a tentative schedule announced last fall, WSU was to have opened the 1996 season Sept. 7 at Temple before playing at Fresno State the following Saturday. But under the revised schedule, the Cougars will open at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colo., before traveling to Philadelphia to face Temple.

A report out of Denver said only that ABC was considering televising the WSU-Colorado game, but Dickson said live television coverage by the network was a part of the agreement.

The first of two bye weeks (Sept. 14 and Nov. 2) will follow the Temple game before the Cougars open their home schedule against Pacific-10 Conference foe Oregon on Sept. 21. Other 1996 home games include San Jose State (Sept. 28), California (Oct. 19), Southern California (Oct. 26), and Washington (Nov. 23).

WSU’s remaining road games will be at Arizona (Oct. 5), at Oregon State (Oct. 12), at UCLA (Nov. 9) and at Stanford (Nov. 16).

Eastman said WSU’s basketball opponent in the opening round of next year’s Rainbow Classic (Dec. 27-30) has yet to be determined. He said the eight-team field also is expected to include host Hawaii, Pittsburgh, Alabama, Maryland, Michigan, Rice and Providence.

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WSU Will Open With Colorado Cougars Alter Schedule For TV Matchup, Add Tourney For Men’s Basketball

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