You’ve waited months and months for the return of Arizona Wildcats football. You won’t have to wait deep into the night.
The UA’s season opener is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
The afternoon kickoff is a rarity for the Wildcats, who had only three such starts (out of 12) each of the past two seasons. The previous two years, Arizona had three total early- or mid-afternoon kickoffs.
It remains a possibility, albeit a remote one, that the Arizona-Utah game could be moved from Salt Lake City to Tucson. COVID-19 cases are surging in Utah, to the point that officials might have to prioritize patients because of a dearth of available intensive care units.
One of the Pac-12 Conference’s criteria for rescheduling or cancelling a game reads as follows: "Local public health officials of the home team state that there is an inability for the hospital infrastructure to accommodate a surge.”
In the event that such a surge makes it unfeasible for a Pac-12 school to host a game, all suitable alternative locations will be considered – including, potentially, the home stadium of the scheduled traveling team.
A similar situation arose in the Mountain West Conference, which moved Saturday's New Mexico-San Jose State game from Albuquerque to San Jose "due to the continued prevalence of the COVID-19 virus in Bernalillo County and in accordance with state guidelines."
Every Pac-12 team currently is scheduled to play three home games and three away games, plus a cross-divisional contest. The opponent and site of the seventh game will be determined by the results of the season.
Fans will not be allowed to attend Pac-12 games this year, regardless of location.
Here’s what the rest of the Week 1 Pac-12 slate looks like (all times Mountain):
- Arizona State at USC: 10 a.m., Fox
- UCLA at Colorado: 5 p.m., ESPN2
- Stanford at Oregon: 5:30 p.m., ABC
- Washington at Cal: 8:30 p.m., ESPN
- Washington State at Oregon State: 8:30 p.m., FS1
