Afternoon starts are rare for Arizona, but this season things are different. The Pac-12 announced Monday that the Wildcats will have 2 p.m. (MST) kickoff against Utah to open the season Nov. 7.
Arizona had just three afternoon kickoffs last season and three in the 2018 season, but the program has openly pushed for more daytime games over the last several years. The season opener will be televised by ESPNU with the first six weeks of the Pac-12 season being reserved for the league's TV partners, ESPN and FOX.
UA's last afternoon game was played last November at home against Oregon State. Its last road afternoon kickoff came a week before that at Stanford.
The conference's TV partners will utilize both six and 12-day windows to determine the kickoff times through the first six weeks. UA's game against the Utes will be the second of the season openers in the Pac-12 to take place Nov. 7 behind the 9 a.m. kickoff between USC and Arizona State.
Arizona has moved on from the camp portion of its fall practice schedule into game preparation for the matchup against Utah. The Wildcats will remain in that format for the next two weeks before its matchup with the Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
Something to monitor about the upcoming season opener is the surge in COVID-19 cases in Utah. If the spike continues it could eventually force the game to change locations, which is something that happened Monday in the Mountain West as it was announced that conference would be moving a game featuring New Mexico and San Jose State from Albuquerque to San Jose because of a continued surge of coronavirus cases there.
For now the game remains on track and both teams continue to move forward toward playing Nov. 7.
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