Reports: Washington Reached Out To BYU To Play, Cougars Wanted Firm Commitment

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Washington Huskies are looking for an opponent this week and the BYU Cougars happen to have an open date.

According to multiple reports, the Huskies reached out to BYU to try and schedule a game with the Cougars this weekend. BYU declined the offer.

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Kyle Bonagura first reported the news.

Washington has reached out to BYU about scheduling a game for this week, but so far BYU has resisted, sources tell me and @ESPNRittenberg

— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) November 22, 2020

Bruce Feldman of FOX sports and The Athletic, reported that BYU rejected Washington’s offer because the Cougars want to see where the College Football Playoff Committee ranks the team when the first Top 25 ranking is released this Tuesday.

SOURCES: #BYU turned down the opportunity to play #Washington this coming weekend. UDub had reached out yesterday but was told BYU wanted to wait until after the CFP rankings Tuesday to gauge their place. "It's off the table."

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 23, 2020

BYU has hopes of reaching a New Year’s Six Bowl game. In order to qualify for that as an at-large team, the Cougars would have to be ranked in the top 12 of the CFP rankings to get into a NY6 game.

In the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings that were released on Sunday, BYU stayed at No. 8 following their blowout win over North Alabama at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday.

Another reason that BYU could have rejected Washington’s offer was because of the possibility the Huskies play Utah this week. When the Pac-12 approved teams to schedule non-conference opponents, those teams have to follow the criteria below:

• “All Pac-12 testing and related protocols must be adhered to by the non-conference opponent;
• The non-conference game will in all cases be a home game for the Pac-12 team, broadcast by a Pac-12 television partner; and
• If a Pac-12 opponent becomes available by the end of day Thursday in any given week, the Conference game must be played in lieu of any non-conference game.”

According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports, BYU is interested in playing Washington but they want a contract in place.

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

But that is not possible because of the criteria listed above.