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Washington State, Arizona to kick off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in ESPN game

Washington State wide receiver Dezmon Patmon (12) runs for a first down against Arizona in the second half during an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona defeated Washington State 58-37. (Rick Scuteri / AP)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

PULLMAN – A third straight Washington State football game will air nationally on ESPN, but it’ll come at the cost of another late start.

Taking advantage of a six-day selection window, ESPN picked up next Saturday’s game between No. 10 WSU and Arizona. Kickoff between the Cougars and Wildcats will be at 7:30 p.m. at Martin Stadium.

Both teams are coming off victories over Colorado. WSU (9-1, 6-1) routed the Buffaloes 31-7 on Saturday at Folsom Field in Boulder and Arizona (5-5, 4-3) took down CU 42-34 in Tucson prior to its bye week.

Saturday’s game will be WSU’s fifth on a national television network this season and fourth on ESPN. The Cougars, ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings entering the weekend, have been on ESPN each of the last two weeks in games against Cal and Colorado.

This will be the fourth game of WSU’s season with a start time of 7:30 p.m. or later. The Cougars played San Jose State in a game that kicked off at 8 p.m., while a Friday roadie at USC started at 7:30 p.m. and a home game against Cal two weeks ago began at 7:45 p.m.

Regardless of what happens against Arizona, the Cougars will only be able to win the Pac-12 North by beating Washington the following week in the Apple Cup – unless the heavily-favored Huskies lose to Oregon State on Saturday, in which case a WSU win over Arizona would seal the division title.

The Cougars close out the regular season playing two of the three Pac-12 teams they lost to in 2017. WSU will try to avenge a 58-37 defeat to the Wildcats in Tucson. The Cougars will be aiming for their 13th consecutive win at Martin Stadium.

The Pac-12 has set kickoff times and TV slots for the other games on Nov. 17: Utah at Colorado (10:30 a.m., Pac-12 Networks), USC at UCLA (12:30 p.m., FOX), Oregon State at UW (1:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), Stanford at Cal (4:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), Arizona State at Oregon (7:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).