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The No. 5 Washington Huskies will try to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive when they visit the No. 23 Washington State Cougars on Friday afternoon. Both teams come in with just one loss in conference play, so the winner will advance to the Pac-12 Championship game next Saturday to face either USC or Colorado. The last time the two schools came into their rivalry game knowing a championship was on the line for the victor was 1936.
WSU opened Pac-12 play with seven consecutive wins before falling at Colorado last week. The Cougars are 8-3 overall, and risk falling far down the Pac-12 bowl pecking order with a loss. The Huskies ran off nine wins to start the season before a loss to red-hot USC at home. At the time, it looked to be a death blow to UW’s playoff hopes. However, sitting at No. 5 with Nos. 2 and 3 set to play each other, the Huskies are very likely to make the playoff if they win out.
UW holds a three-game winning streak in the series, with the last WSU victory coming in 2012. That happened in Pullman, as an underdog Cougar squad overcame an 18-point 4th-quarter deficit to win in overtime. The Cougs would certainly take any similar result on Friday.
Game time: 12:30 p.m. PT
TV channel: FOX
Radio feed: Washington State IMG Sports Network