Without the Apple Cup, and already down a game on the schedule, who will Washington football play on Thanksgiving weekend?
Washington football won’t be playing in the Apple Cup for the first time since 1944, after a COVID outbreak on the Washington State side. The Cougars will be unable to field a roster of enough scholarship players, therefore Friday’s game, which was scheduled to take place in Pullman, won’t happen.
So what’s next for Jimmy Lake’s squad? The Huskies are riding high after a 44-28 thrashing of the Arizona Wildcats, and are looking to play a different team of Cougars. The #8 BYU Cougars currently have three open weeks before their next scheduled game against the San Diego State Aztecs on December 12th.
BYU should be chomping at the bit to come to Seattle and play the Huskies, but according to Bruce Feldman, it’s “off the table” until at least Tuesday when the first College Football Playoff rankings are announced, and they determine if they need to play the game for their ranking.
This would be the biggest test by far on BYU’s schedule, and a win for them would be a statement in the eyes of the committee. By refusing to schedule this game, they’re doing nothing but hurting themselves. It also defeats the purpose of this tweet from November 21st.
Now obviously, there are issues with this, as the Pac-12 values conference games first. If Arizona State’s game with Utah gets canceled, or any other game for that matter, the conference would most likely prioritize that over a game with BYU. With three weeks between games though, a cancelation with a few days notice shouldn’t exactly be at the top of BYU’s list of concerns.
New details seem to be rolling in every minute, as this is the latest update from Yahoo’s Pete Thamel at the time this article was published.
Source: Some context on the potential BYU-Washington game. BYU is interested in playing, but only if they can lock in a contract immediately. They are concerned that Pac-12 will make UW play Utah on Sunday if ASU can't play. "If we can get a game locked in, we want to play."
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 23, 2020
The Pac-12 can’t afford to botch this after mishandling the first few weeks of the season, and a matchup between the Huskies and a top 10 team would be great national exposure for the conference as a whole.