Oregon St.'s Stanford Game For Homecoming Another Night Game

Oregon St.'s Homecoming contest against Stanford will be yet another late night game. The network selections and time slot assignments for the Oct. 26 games have been announced, and the Beavers game against the Cardinal will be their 3rd consecutive game 7:30 start. It will be on ESPN "no-suffix" this time.

(But don't expect a ratings bump if the Beavers pull the upset, most poll voters will have submitted their ballot and be sound asleep before the game ever starts.)

This will mean 4 consecutive night games, which is likely to go to 5 once the game in Tempe against Arizona St. is scheduled, and 5 (or 6) so far this season (not considering the 5 PM game a "late start", since it wasn't dark at the time).

Utah at USC gets the only relatively early start, at 1 PM, though it has been relegated to the Pac-12 channel, as ABC is focusing their efforts on the ACC that week.

The best broadcast slot of the day, the 4 PM start, goes to the UCLA at Oregon game, and may be the lead-in game to the Stanford-Oregon St. game, though ESPN will choose between ESPN & ESPN2 in a week.

Arizona at Colorado will be an early evening game, at 6 PM in Boulder, and 5 PM PDT, but will also be relegated to the Pac-12 channel.

Beaver Nation won't be up quite as late as their purple neighbors, though, as the California at Washington game which will be on Fox Sports 1, will go after 8 PM. It's believed to be the latest start time ever for a Husky game in Seattle.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com