Cal Sports Report

Cal Football: Game Time Changed for Washington State Game

Cancellation of Washington-Oregon game caused FOX to decide to televise Cal-Washington State instead and move the Bears' game to an earlier time slot
Jake Curtis|
Cal Football: Game Time Changed for Washington State Game
Cal Football: Game Time Changed for Washington State Game

The cancellation of the Washington-Oregon game has caused the starting time for Cal's game at Washington State on Saturday to be moved from  7:30 p.m. to 1 p.m.

The Cal-Washington State game will now be televised by FOX on its network station rather than on FS1 as originally scheduled.

The time change means temperatures in Pullman, Wash., will be a little warmer than they would be at night, and the Bears are likely to avoid the snow that is expected to begin falling late Saturday night. Temperature at the 1 p.m. game time is expected to be about 32 degrees instead of the 27 degrees that was forecast for 7:30 p.m.

Cal (1-3) is coming off a 24-17 upset of then-No. 23 Oregon, while Washington State (1-2) lost to USC 38-13.

The time change is a minor logistical problem for Cal compared to the havoc created by the cancellation of the Washington-Oregon game because of virus-related issues at Washington. The winner of the game between Oregon (3-2) and Washington (3-1) would have been the North Division representative in the Dec. 18 Pac-12 title game against the South Division champ, either USC or Colorado.  Now it is unclear which teams will play in the title game. The Huskies presumably would represent the North based on their better winning percentage, as outlined in Pac-12 rules, but Huskies coach Jimmy Lake said Wednesday that if his team could not play this week it is unlikely to be ready to play on Dec. 18.

Washington State and Stanford could still tie Oregon State at 3-2, but the Ducks have head-to-head wins over the Cougars and Stanford, which also could finish 3-2, so Oregon would win those tie-breakers if it comes down to that.

There is also some sentiment that USC and Colorado should meet in the conference title game if both win this weekend to finish as the only unbeaten teams in the conference.

Pac-12 announcement regarding Washington-Oregon game:

The 82nd all-time meeting between Washington State and Cal will occur on the latest date in the calendar year ever with the previous mark Nov. 28, 1987, when the teams played to a 17-17 tie at the Coca-Cola Classic in Tokyo, Japan. The latest the teams have ever met in Pullman was a 31-28 Washington State win on Nov. 17, 1973.

Cover photo of Justin Wilcox by Kelley L Cox, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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