11/7/2020
By Brandon Brown
ESN Director of Content
SEATTLE, WA – The 2020-21 Non-Conference schedule for the Seattle Redhawks was released Friday afternoon, completing their full regular season slate for the year. The release comes a couple of weeks after the conference schedule which had 16 WAC games announced. The non-conference lineup includes a couple match ups with PAC-12 teams and 3 home games.
NOVEMBER
25th & 26th – Tournament @ University of Portland
The Redhawks will open the season with a tournament hosted by the University of Portland. Seattle will play Idaho (25th) and Cal Poly (26th) while down in The City of Roses.
29th & 30th – Neutral Site in Vegas
From Portland, Seattle will fly to Sin City for two neutral site games. They will take on Air Force (29th) and California State Northridge (30th).
DECEMBER
3rd – @ UCLA
This will be the first matchup between the Redhawks and the Bruins. UCLA went 19-12 last season and are projected by many to be the favorite out of the PAC-12 this season.
6th – @ Long Beach State
The Beach and Redhawks played to a 79 to 57 result last season in favor of Seattle. This will be the second matchup between the schools.
9th – @ University of Washington
The Huskies and Redhawks square off for another edition of the inner-city rivalry. Since 2009, Seattle has an 0-12 record vs UW. Last season looked promising when SU had a 33-32 halftime lead, but the Huskies stormed back to outscore the Redhawks 49-26 in the second half.
13th – vs Northwest
The first home game of the season comes against Northwest out of Kirkland. Seattle is 4-0 against the Eagles dating back to the 2012 season with their last meeting coming in 2018.
15th – vs Corban
Another first for Seattle, they will play the Corban Warriors for their second home game. Corban comes out of the Cascade Conference of the NAIA.
19th – vs Portland
Seattle has won their last 3 matchups with Portland dating back to a 2017 matchup at KeyArena. This will be the 3rd and final home non-conference game this season.
30th – @ Portland
A real chance to double up on the Pilots as they complete the home and away matchup to end the calendar year in Portland.
Final Thoughts
This schedule is a clear sign of the times as Seattle never leaves the Pacific Time Zone for any of their non-conference games. The matchups vs UCLA and Washington gives them tough matchups to test themselves as the Bruins will be a top 25 team and the Huskies are a natural rival.
The home games seem to be easier matchups as they take on two teams from the NAIA. Much like and FBS team playing a FCS team, this allows for the team to get a couple warm up matches before WAC play begins just a few weeks later.
All in all, it’s hard to find anything wrong with the schedule that the team was able to put together. It is a great mixture of tough tests and lower competitions that you usually find in non-conference schedules. It keeps the team safe with minimal travel as well, which just can’t be overstated in a year like this.
Russell is the Content Director for the Eli Network. He studied broadcast journalism at Eastern Oregon and North Dakota State University. Mostly covers soccer and basketball in the Seattle area and is the current play-by-play voice for Seattle Redhawks basketball. You can follow him @brussbrwn.
