The Pac-12 Conference handed Arizona a mostly favorable set of dates and times when it announced the official conference schedule Thursday.
The Wildcats will get to bookend their conference season at home, with their Jan. 3 opener against Colorado and their March 9 finale against Arizona State at McKale Center.
The UA won’t have to play any home games later than 8 p.m. during the Pac-12 season, although its Dec. 15 home game with Baylor and a Jan. 9 game at Stanford will tip off at 9 p.m., Tucson time.
In addition, five of the Wildcats’ eight two-game weekends in conference play will be in the traditional Thursday-Saturday format, although they will have to take two extended weekend road trips: from Jan. 9-12 against Stanford and Cal, and from Feb. 14-17 against Utah and Colorado.
That means Arizona will have to play two Sunday games during conference play — on Feb. 17 at Colorado and on Feb. 24 at home against Stanford — after it had no Sunday games last season.
The Wildcats will have two certain day games during Pac-12 play, both at home. They’ll host Utah at noon on Jan. 5, and ASU at 2 p.m. on March 9. The Wildcats could have another day game on March 2 at Oregon, pending ESPN’s decision on a tipoff time about two weeks beforehand.
Of Arizona’s 13 nonconference games, at least four will begin at 5 p.m. or earlier, plus up to two more in Maui Invitational competition.
The ESPN family will televise 14 of the Wildcats’ 31 regular-season games, while the Pac-12 Networks will carry 12, FS1 will have four games, and CBS will carry the UA-ASU finale on March 9.
The Pac-12 Networks will also broadcast UA’s two exhibition games and its Oct. 14 Red-Blue scrimmage.
Because of the Pac-12’s unbalanced schedule, the Wildcats will not travel to Washington or Washington State, and they will not host UCLA or USC.
