Rainbows, Irish
on prime time

ESPNwill show Hawaii's
season-ending football game against
Notre Dame live nationally on Nov. 29

By Paul Arnett
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii will be making a prime time appearance in its season-ending football game with Notre Dame.

ESPN will broadcast the nonconference affair nationally, but has yet to list the starting time for the Nov. 29 matchup.

The cable network also will show the Virginia-Virginia Tech game that same day.

No schedule time has been listed for that traditional rivalry, either.

Hawaii has scheduled the game with the Fighting Irish for 6 p.m. locally. That means the kickoff would be 11 p.m. on the East Coast and 10 p.m. in the Chicago area.

If ESPN elected to have a time change to make it more viewer friendly, kickoff could be moved to 2:30 (HST) in the afternoon.

The 1991 game at Aloha Stadium between Notre Dame and Hawaii had a 6 p.m. kickoff time. The Rainbows were a struggling 3-7-1 team, but almost upset the Irish in the wild 48-42 game.

Many players said that game set the table for the magical 11-2 season of 1992. UH head coach Fred vonAppen can only hope for similar results.

At first glance, the game is a decided mismatch.

For one thing, Notre Dame is ranked No. 11 in the Sporting News preseason poll. Hawaii is a distant No. 91 of 112 Division I teams, sandwiched between Duke and Tulane.

Partly because of that poor preseason ranking, Hawaii is not scheduled for any other national television appearances, including its Aug. 30 season opener with Big Ten member Minnesota.

ESPN and sister station ESPN2 already have committed to four games on Aug. 30 -- none from the Western Athletic Conference.

CBS won't begin its limited college schedule until Sept. 13.

ABC has listed UCLA and Washington State as its West regional game on Aug. 30. There will be other regional games broadcast, but they haven't been announced.

Minnesota is ranked No. 68 in The Sporting News preseason poll. The rankings of Hawaii's remaining Division I opponents are Wyoming (No. 65), Nevada-Las Vegas (No. 88), Colorado State (No. 23), Fresno State (No. 97), Brigham Young University (No. 26), San Diego State (No. 40), Air Force (No. 55), San Jose State (No. 109) and Northeast Louisiana (No. 99).