Northwest Notes Aug. 20, 2021
First fall high school sporting events are today.
The local high school fall sports season begins officially today.
In addition to Lakeland's football game vs. Preston at 5 p.m. MDT at Montana Tech in Butte, there's a pair of soccer games — Sandpoint girls at Lake City at 3:45 p.m., and Lake City boys at Sandpoint at 6 p.m. at Memorial Field.
Also today, North Idaho College begins with a pair of exhibition soccer games — NIC men at Carroll and NIC women at Northwest Nazarene.
Coeur d'Alene Shootout brackets to be released today
COEUR d'ALENE — Brackets for the Coeur d’Alene Shootout 3-on-3 basketball tournament Aug. 21-22, hosted by North Idaho College, are scheduled to be released today via nicathletics.com, the school announced.
Vandals to have football scrimmage Saturday
MOSCOW — Idaho will host its first and only open football scrimmage of the fall this Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.
Doors to the Kibbie Dome will open just prior to the event. All attendees will be required to wear a mask or face covering upon entry, per university policy.
The Vandals have been practices for nearly two weeks despite the challenging weather conditions in Moscow. The opening weekend went off without a hitch, but excessive heat and smoke warnings ultimately forced practice inside.
The first scrimmage of the year, held last Saturday, primarily featured situational football.
This scrimmage will be dramatically different, with many more elements of a traditional game. Officials, as well as real timing and scoring, will be implemented on Saturday as the Vandals gear up for the season-opener just two weeks away.
ESPN+ set to broadcast 64 Big Sky football games
The Big Sky Conference announced that all football games — conference and non-conference — held at Big Sky venues will be available on ESPN digital platforms this fall.
A total of 64 football games will be available on ESPN+, while the four games being televised by ROOT Sports this fall will be available to ESPN+ subscribers outside of the ROOT Sports/AT&T Sports Net footprints.
ROOT Sports begins its ninth season of televising Big Sky Conference football on Saturday, Sept. 25 in a matchup featuring Cal Poly and Montana State. ROOT will also televise Idaho at Eastern Washington (Oct. 16), Southern Utah at Montana (Oct. 30) and Montana State at Montana (Nov. 20).
Two games airing live on ESPNU will be available on the Watch ESPN App. Those games will not be available on ESPN+. On Saturday, Oct. 2, Eastern Washington will play host to Montana at 8:30 p.m. MT on ESPNU. On Friday, Oct. 15, Weber State welcomes Montana State to Ogden for an 8 p.m. MT contest on ESPNU.
Big Sky Conference football teams begin action on ESPN+ on Thursday, Sept. 2 as Northern Arizona takes on defending Division I FCS national champion Sam Houston at the Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff. On Saturday, Sept. 4, Idaho takes on Simon Fraser at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, and Idaho State battles former Big Sky member North Dakota.
ESPN+ is a subscription-based service available in the United States at a cost of $6.99 a month, or $69.99 per year. ESPN+ can also be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $13.99 per month.
ESPN+ is the new home for Big Sky Conference events. Throughout the 2021-22 academic year, hundreds of volleyball, soccer, softball and men’s and women’s basketball will air on the network.
Pac-12 announces men’s basketball weekly pairings
PULLMAN — The Pac-12 Conference has released the weekly matchups and site designations for the league's 2021-22 men's basketball season.
The announcement reflects the games being played and the home/away designations each week of the Pac-12 regular season. Specific dates and times for each game within a week will be announced at a later date alongside of the conference’s television partners.
The Cougars open Pac-12 play in early December with games at Arizona State (Dec. 1) and at home against USC (Dec. 4) as part of the league's continued implementation of the 20-game conference schedule.
After completing non-conference action, Washington State opens the bulk of the Pac-12 season against Washington in Pullman the week of Dec. 29-Jan. 2.
In the new year the Cougs alternate home and road weekends throughout the rest of the season, beginning with a road trip to Colorado and Utah (Jan. 5-9). Returning home, WSU gets its first crack at Cal and Stanford the week of Jan. 12-16 before heading back out on the road to take on Oregon and Oregon State (Jan. 19-23). The Cougars close out the month of January with the return trips of Colorado and Utah which come to the Palouse the week of Jan. 26-30.
Heading into the home stretch of the season the Cougars take a trip to California to return the home and home against Cal and Stanford the week of Feb. 2-6. The week of Feb. 9-13 the Cougars take on Arizona for the only time in the regular season while Arizona State comes to town to complete the season series.
One week later the Cougs head to Los Angeles to take on UCLA in the lone matchup of the year, while facing USC for the second time on the year (Feb. 16-20). The only time the Cougs remain on the road for multiple weeks takes WSU to the west side the week of Feb. 23-27 to play Washington. The regular season finishes at home for WSU with Oregon and Oregon State coming to town the week of March 2-5.
The Pac-12 Tournament will take place March 9-12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Information: wsucougars.com