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BYU books five kickoff times in first half of football season

In basketball, Cougars will skip Santa Clara and Pepperdine once each in 2018-19<br>

BYU's Ula Tolutau (5) tries to break away from East Carolina's Devon Sutton (42) and others tacklers during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Greenville, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

BYU will play three night games and two afternoon games in the first six weeks of the 2018 football season, with one more kickoff time to be announced in the first half of the schedule.

The late kickoffs (all times MDT) include the Sept. 1 season opener at Arizona (8:45 p.m.), the Sept. 8 home opener vs. California (8:15 p.m.) and the Friday, Oct. 5 game vs. Utah State (7 p.m.).

The afternoon games in the first month are Sept. 15 at Wisconsin (1:30 p.m.) and Sept. 22 vs. McNeese State (4 p.m.). The kickoff for the Sept. 29 game at Washington and all other Saturday contests are to be announced, as determined in television outlets’ 12-day windows.

In basketball news, also announced Thursday, BYU will play Santa Clara and Pepperdine once each in 2018-19 in the West Coast Conference’s new scheduling approach.

The WCC is moving from a double round-robin format to a 16-game conference schedule as part of the “Men’s Basketball Enhancement Plan,” designed to keep the WCC’s lower-tier programs from hurting the credentials of the league’s NCAA Tournament contenders.

That intent clearly is reflected in the 2018-19 schedules. Pepperdine, which finished last in 2017-18, will meet Gonzaga and BYU once each. Portland, the ninth-place team, faces Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s once each and eighth-place Loyola Marymount draws SMC once.

The dates of the WCC’s conference games will be announced sometime this summer, with league play beginning Jan. 3. The conference tournament is March 7-12 at the traditional site of Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, but with a new format. The top two teams will receive byes into the semifinals.

Women’s basketball will maintain an 18-game conference schedule, the WCC’s news release said.

BYU coach Dave Rose is the chair of the WCC men’s coaches’ committee that drove the scheduling changes, approved in late March in what was viewed generally as an effort to make staying in the league more acceptable to powerful Gonzaga.

“As the landscape changes and access to the NCAA Tournament becomes more challenging, we felt it was appropriate to make adjustments in the way we schedule both during conference play and in the nonconference portion of the season,” Rose said at the time.