Washington State University might take almost as long to travel to its "home" football game this week as the visiting Hawai'i Warriors, who are coming 2,679 miles.

According to UH sports information director Derek Inouchi, the Warriors are scheduled for a 5 1/2-hour flight today to Seattle, site of Saturday's non-conference game with the Cougars at Qwest Field.

Meanwhile, the Cougars will require "about five hours" to bus from their Pullman, Wash. campus to Seattle, 288 miles away, according to a WSU spokesman.

WSU said its team will bus to both the UH game and the Nov. 28 game at rival Washington. Busing will save the school "roughly $40,000 per trip," the school said.

The WSU athletic department has sought to compensate for the projected decrease of $350,000 in school support and one way is employing ground transportation for all competition within 400 miles of Pullman.

WSU, which plays its home games on campus at 35,117-seat Martin Stadium, began playing one game a season in Seattle seven years ago to better showcase its program in the western part of the state. The Cougars list 60,000 alumni in the King County (Seattle) area, according to Mark Wilcomb, operations director of the WSU Alumni Center. The game is the centerpiece of "WSU in Seattle Week."

Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, lists a seating capacity of 67,000 and as of yesterday, WSU said ticket sales stood at approximately 33,000 with a crowd of 45,000 expected Saturday.

UH is contracted to receive $300,000 for its appearance against the Cougars. WSU will pay UH another $300,000 to cancel its Nov. 26, 2011 appearance at Aloha Stadium.

In a prepared statement, WSU said, "The 2011 meeting between Washington State and Hawai'i has been removed from the Cougars schedule to allow for flexibility in the Pac-10 Conference slate that year," said WSU Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. "WSU and the conference are looking at ways to create an off week during a 12-game schedule and this allows us the opportunity to adjust accordingly," Sterk added.

It was to have been the third of a three-game series between schools. The first was played at Aloha Stadium last season, which UH won, 24-10.