In case you were looking for downsides to the happiness attendant to the Pac-12’s humongous $3 billion TV deal, here it is: The Apple Cup will be played Nov. 23, the Friday after Thanksgiving, when Washington State students are on holiday, as well as nearly everyone else.
The development is believed to be unprecedented. Until 2007, the Apple Cup had always been played before Thanskgiving.
It wasn’t a total surprise because Washington State athletic director Bill Moos let the cougar out of the bag at a November luncheon. There were reported to be behind-the-scenes talks to avoid the date, for all the obvious travel and logistical headaches for the Huskies, as well as fans who are more than a walk away from Martin Stadium. Those seem to have gone nowhere.
UW’s biggie is the trip to Baton Rouge to face Louisiana State, which is currently unbeaten, ranked No. 1 and will play Alabama in the BCS championship game Monday.
“I am excited about the 2012 schedule and the opportunities it provides for competition and exposure on the national level,” UW athletic director Scott Woodward, who worked at LSU before coming to Washington, told the school’s website. “The magnitude of the game at LSU on national TV speaks for itself.”
In exchange for the money, the Pac-12, as well as all BCS conferences, surrendered to ESPN and Fox the right to do what’s best for its schools regarding scheduling. If the nets wanted the Huskies and Cougars to play in the Safeway parking lot in Leavenworth at midnight on a Wednesday, the teams would report, snow shovels at the ready.
Besides the Apple Cup, the Huskies have another Friday game, Nov. 2 at Cal, as well as a Thursday home game at the Clink against Stanford.
The entire Pac-12 Conference schedule is here. The Huskies’ portion is below (all games Saturday, except where noted; game times will be announced later by ESPN or Fox):
- Sept. 1 — San Diego State
- Sept. 8 — at LSU
- Sept. 15 — Portland State
- Sept. 22 — Bye
- Thursday, Sept. 27 — Stanford
- Oct. 6 — at Oregon
- Oct. 13 — USC
- Oct. 20 — at Arizona
- Oct. 27 — Oregon State
- Friday, Nov. 2 — at Cal
- Nov. 10 — Utah
- Nov. 17 — at Colorado
- Friday, Nov. 23 — at Washington State
Here is the Washington State schedule:
- Sept. 1 at BYU
- Sept. 8 Eastern Washington
- Sept. 15 at UNLV
- Sept. 22 Colorado
- Sept. 29 Oregon (at Seattle)
- Oct. 6 at Oregon State
- Oct. 13 California
- Oct. 20 Bye
- Oct. 27 at Stanford
- Nov. 3 at Utah
- Nov. 10 UCLA
- Nov. 17 at Arizona State
- Nov. 23 Washington
The Pac-12 title game is Nov. 30 at the home of the team with the best record.
The still-to-be-launched Pac-12 Network will televise all games not chosen by the nets.
The Cougars annual game in Seattle at the Clink is against Oregon Sept. 29, which follows by two days the Washington-Stanford game.
Washington again will not play Arizona State and UCLA in 2012, according to the conference rotation schedule. Those teams will be back on in 2013-14 when USC and Colorado will move off. The Cougars do not play Arizona and USC.
8 Comments
Thiel is an idiot trying to be the naysayer to get some press. Jack Z has not been perfect, but he’s practically rebuilding the team from the ground up. The farm system is now very highly rated among people who follow those things. Bavasi was the worst GM is sports and he gutted the talent on this team. We now have 3-4 promising hitters and 3-4 very promising pitchers. Thiel lists Cliff Lee as an example? Seriously? We never had a chance to keep him, so we traded him for value. And Brandom Morrow? Good riddance.
carbidedrill, let me ask you something: when you go to Safeco, are YOU excited about watching Charlie Furbush start a game? How about Beavan? Is that fun? Are you excited about watching Smoak, Casper Wells, Saunders, and a bunch of other prospects take the field so we can see if they’re any good? Well, I’m not. Especially when they play 18 times against Yu Darvish and the Rangers, and 18 times against Pujols and C.J. Wilson and the Angels. Damn, i’m tired of prospects, and i’m tired of losing.
So yes, and in reply to StevenK too, there is hope that Jack Z is better at his job than Bavasi (he could not possibly be worse), and I sure hope he is. But it still means another year of 90-some losses.
Zduriencik is so much better than Bavasi it’s not even funny.
Remember these names, because in about 24 months you are going to be sitting in a very crowded Safeco Field cheering like hell for these guys: Hultzen, Paxton, Walker, Hernandez, Montero, Smoak, Ackley, Franklin, Francisco Martinez, Liddi, Catricala, Pryor, Robinson, Chiang.
I think Thiel is right and several of you miss his point. His point is that even when we have some players that are good, we trade them because we’re not willing to spend $$$ to improve in any other way. It doesn’t matter how good our farm system is under this model and it’s not about winning. Good to great pitching is a precious commodity and we keep trading it away. Once we have a few kids step up and the rest wash out, those few will become trade bait to show that management is “doing something”. Several of our kids could be decent this year or next, but I don’t think many of you are appreciating what an offensive hole we are in. You can now add to that several question marks for pitching. The Angels and Rangers want to win. The Mariners just want to exist, although it appears increasingly likely that this wheel spinning and avoidance of bigger, longer contracts is to help sell the team.
Great hitting catchers are even more scarce than top young pitching (remember Jason Veritek?).
BYE!