Predicting Washington's 2024 season

Game-by-game picks and more.

Perhaps this year’s season predictions should begin with a guess as to whether Comcast customers will be able to watch Saturday’s game against Weber State.

And here you thought Washington leaving the Pac-12 meant the end of cable carriage issues. Turns out Comcast is the only provider yet to accept the Big Ten’s “territory expansion offer” related to the league’s addition of Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA, and live events involving those schools are therefore blacked out in local markets.

That means, for example, that UW’s thrilling men’s soccer victory over No. 4 Oregon State on Monday did not air live in Seattle. To be clear, Comcast customers on the West Coast still can pay $10 to add the channel, and still can watch the rest of the network’s programming. But they can’t presently watch live events involving the teams in their home markets, which has obvious ramifications for UW’s 8 p.m. Saturday season opener.

Negotiations are ongoing. We’ll keep you posted. These sorts of disputes happen, and are often resolved before any corresponding brouhaha reaches, say, Pac-12-DirecTV levels. For now, though, Comcast customers might want to consider arranging alternate viewing options for Saturday night — and perhaps reevaluating their choice of cable provider, if the dispute continues beyond this weekend.

The season will be upon us, in any event, which means it’s time to do some predicting. Each year, I make a pick for every game on Washington’s schedule, the Huskies’ final record, final conference standings and other statistical odds and ends. 

Results may vary. Last year, I had UW at 11-1. The year before, I predicted 7-5. And, yes, in 2021, I had the Huskies finishing 10-2. 

Let’s get to our 2024 picks.