WACO, Texas — Washington State and Baylor will play under the Friday night lights in an effort to avoid complications from Hurricane Ike.

With the storm expected to hit the Texas coast this weekend, then move northward through the state, Baylor officials moved the game, originally scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CDT Saturday for an FSN-TV broadcast, to 5:30 p.m. PDT today.

Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw said the switch was made after consulting with other university and Washington State officials.

McCaw commended Washington State officials “for being cooperative in moving the game in order to serve the best interests of student-athletes, staff and fans.”

The concern was that the approaching hurricane would cause travel problems for Washington State fans, as well as FSN production crews, many who are in the greater Houston area. Houston may be directly impacted by Ike.

Washington State is flying to Texas on today, on a 31⁄2-hour charter flight scheduled to arrive in Waco about 41⁄2 hours before kickoff. The school was unable to secure a charter plane to get out Thursday night after the game was switched.

“It’s all in how you handle it,” Washington State coach Paul Wulff said. “We’re not going to really worry about it. We need to take care of business and play football.”

While FSN was unable to rearrange to broadcast live tonight, the game will be shown on a 51⁄2-hour tape delay back to the Northwest. A live Web cast of the game will be offered on both schools’ Web sites — BaylorBears.com and WSUcougars.com — free of charge.

Baylor (1-1), playing its third straight home game under first-year coach Art Briles, is coming off a 51-6 victory over Northwestern State, a team from the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision.

The Bears have lost 13 consecutive games against teams from BCS conferences, but Washington State (0-2) has been outscored 105-16 in its first two games for its new coach.

The Cougars, running a new no-huddle spread offense similar to what Briles has installed at Baylor, are coming off a 66-3 loss to California last week.

The field goal extended their streak of scoring in 275 consecutive games, the second-longest streak in Division I, behind only Michigan (302).

Wulff plans to use two quarterbacks for the game, but the coach refused to say if fifth-year senior Gary Rogers or junior Kevin Lopina will start. Lopina, a transfer from Kansas State, took his first college snaps after Rogers was benched at halftime after going 10-of-21 with two interceptions.

True freshman Robert Griffin made his first career start for Baylor last week and accounted for 336 total yards (294 passing, 42 rushing) and four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing).

“What he did for our team, he maintained his composure, protected the football, took what the defense gave us and that is what we’re looking for,” Briles said. “We talked about his job to make everyone on the field look better and that is the point that we are getting to.”

Two years ago, Baylor lost 17-15 in Seattle against Washington State, after the Cougars kicked a field goal in the closing seconds.

“It is still in the back of our mind a little bit, but at the same time we have to play for this year and this game,” Pawelek said.

The forecast Friday night in Waco calls for 20-30 mph winds but only a slight chance of rain. The conditions are expected to deteriorate overnight, and the forecast Saturday is for heavy rain and wind with some thunderstorms.

Baylor is one of several Texas schools that had to alter schedules this weekend.

Texas had already postponed its game Saturday against Arkansas in Austin, about 100 miles south of Waco. TCU, which is located in Fort Worth about 100 miles north of Waco, moved kickoff for its game Saturday against Stanford from 6 p.m. to noon.

Houston moved its home game against Rice to Dallas, where the Cougars will play on the SMU campus.