Washington knows that Auburn has a clear geographical advantage in Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, and the Huskies wanted to be sure to have something on their side, too — controlling the weather.

Auburn is used to the hot and muggy summer temperatures, but Washington is not. That’s why head coach Chris Petersen made a special request to the President and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Gary Stokan prior to the game being finalized.

“They had been getting a lot of grief about not scheduling anybody in their non conference,” Stokan said Wednesday on WCNN-AM in Atlanta, via 247Sports. “I told Chris, I can help you, I’ve got Auburn that is willing to come play in ’18. Why don’t you come play in our kickoff game again and it’ll be a great matchup, it’ll be great for you. I knew Chris was going to get Washington going. As a matter of fact, they came here in their (College Football Playoff) semifinal game and played Alabama. They were No. 4.

“Chris said, ‘I’ll do it. The one thing I want you to do, Gary, is we don’t practice in humid weather up here in Seattle. In August and September I know Auburn is practicing in it, I need you to be able to tell me you’re going to close the roof. So in his contract, I wrote that we would keep the roof closed for this game. So it’ll be 72 and perfect in the air conditioning there in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Seattle.”

SDS also talked to Stokan about why Pac-12 teams are suddenly interested in coming to Atlanta to play Auburn and Georgia.

Scheduling games ahead of time isn’t perfect. Coaches leave and down years surely happen, but Stokan caught lightning in a bottle with Auburn and Washington, as it’s one of the top non-conference matchups of the 2018 season. It has College Football Playoff implications, and either team will have an uphill battle to reclaim a CFP spot should it lose Saturday.

Count us in for more SEC vs. Pac-12 games.