Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson announced the league's new six-year deal with ESPN that begins this coming academic year. The WAC is assured up to eight football games each year on ESPN or ESPN2 — none guaranteed for a Saturday night.

Benson said it would be "unrealistic" for UH to host Tuesday or Wednesday games because of the time difference. Those games start in prime time on the Mainland.

Although the same problems would exist for Friday games, forcing an afternoon kickoff at Aloha Stadium, Benson said there is more flexibility in ESPN's Friday night schedule.

"ESPN recognizes that playing a game at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a Friday is different than playing a game at Boise at 7 o'clock," Benson said.

But "if ESPN requests Hawai'i to play a Friday game, contractually we're obligated to deliver that game," Benson added.

UH athletic director Herman Frazier has said he did not want UH to host any games on Friday.

Benson said the WAC has agreed to pay an "inconvenience fee" of $50,000 to the host school of a weekday game. Benson said the fee amount is set, and that UH would not be entitled to a higher rate.

"We're always willing to try and cooperate with ESPN, and we need to comply with the contract," Benson said. "But at the same time, we need to do it as effectively as we can for each school. We certainly are going to push for later start times (for UH), but there's no guarantee we can do that."

The new contract, which was signed July 2, is expected to pay the league about $1 million annually. About $400,000 of that amount could go to "inconvenience fees."