If Erin Andrews is interviewing Mike Stoops at halftime Saturday, that probably means the Wildcats are winning. Photo by Kirby Lee, US PRESSWIRE

The Arizona Wildcats will get another chance to show off for a national audience Saturday at Stanford, as ABC will televise the game beginning at 5 p.m. Tucson time.

The Wildcats are 15th in the BCS standings; the Cardinal is 13th.

That is one of the biggest matchups of the college football Saturday, the others being a battle of unbeatens — No. 3 TCU at No. 5 Utah — and No. 6 Alabama at No. 10 LSU. (Those are all BCS rankings.)

ABC is sending its announcing A team to the game — play-by-play man Brent Musberger, analyst Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporter Erin Andrews. (Will Andrews be doing double duty, up early to host the first hour of ESPN’s GameDay show from Salt Lake City and then flying to the Bay Area?)

ABC’s other game in the time slot is Missouri at Texas Tech. The Arizona-Stanford game is expected to reach about 75 percent of the country.

Arizona has appeared on ESPN three times this season (beating Toledo, Iowa and Washington). The Cats have been on FSN (defeating UCLA on Saturday) and Versus twice (losing to Oregon State and winning at Washington State).

For better or worse, more prime exposure is on the way.

The Nov. 13 home game against USC is set for ABC and a 6 p.m. local start. The Wildcats will close the season with two games on ESPN — at Oregon on Nov. 26 (the day after Thanksgiving) and vs. visiting Arizona State on Thursday, Dec. 2.

Arizona is an 8-point underdog to Stanford, which is 7-1 with the only loss coming at Oregon. The Wildcats are 7-1 for the first time since 1998.

QB Matt Scott tries to scramble for a first down against Toledo, but the play was called back because of holding in the end zone/Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

The big question from the Toledo game: Why did the coaches put in backup quarterback Matt Scott early in the second quarter when the Wildcats were backed up at their 4-yard line, leading only 7-0?

“That was kind of unfair,” coach Mike Stoops said. “I wasn’t really pleased with that decision.”

Which is an odd thing for a head coach to say — doesn’t he make all the decisions? — so I asked him if he had the chance to overrule that personnel decision.

Sounds like that one zipped right past the chain of command.

Chalk up to the coaching staff, with new co-offensive coordinators Seth Littrell and Bill Bedenbaugh still working through communication issues during the game.

“That is just stuff we have to work through, and we will,” Stoops said. “That was a mistake. Like I said, we had talked about putting Matt in early in the second quarter, but that wasn’t the ideal situation. …

“That is just something that has to be communicated better. That was my fault.”

Scott and the Wildcats ended up facing a third-and-11 when he scrambled and bulled his way to what appeared to be a first down. But maybe he wouldn’t have gotten started on that run without the hold in the end zone from left guard Conan Amituanai, which resulted in a safety.

Scott got more time late in the game when the Wildcats had a comfortable margin, and you could see what the coaches have been talking about — and we’ve been writing about — regarding the quarterback’s improved throwing. He was 5 of 7 for 53 yards and one touchdown.

Last season, when Scott came into a game in relief of Foles, everyone in the stadium knew he was there to run the ball. This season, defenses are going to have to be a bit more honest against him … or likely pay the price.

* * *

True freshman receiver Tyler Slavin entered the Toledo game as the backup to Juron Criner and it was expected that he would play, but Slavin did not make an appearance. Junior Gino Crump, who made two catches for 20 yards, played as the second-stringer.

Does that mean Slavin is headed to a redshirt season?

Not necessarily. Outside receivers coach Dave Nichol said the coaching staff will continue to get Slavin — and true freshman receiver Austin Hill — ready for action. Just in case. But no final decision has been made regarding a redshirt.

* * *

What’s up with ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit? He picked Arizona at No. 22 in his preseason AP ballot, and then the Wildcats wiped out Toledo, 41-2. So, Arizona might have a chance to move up, right?

Nope. Instead, Herbstreit dropped the Wildcats out of his Top 25.

Even more curiously, USC, which struggled to put away Hawaii, rose from No. 24 to No. 18 on Herbie’s ballot. Hard to figure.

Overall, Arizona received 15 points, tied for 35th with Clemson. That was good for fifth-place among Pac-10 teams, behind Oregon (No. 11), USC (No. 14), Oregon State (No. 24) and Stanford (27th).

This all seems fairly reasonable to me. It’s about the mid-point of expectations for the Wildcats, perhaps a bit on the low side. I think Arizona, for example, has a chance to be closer to the 20th-best team in the country than the 50th-best team.

Not that it much matters. As will be repeated often, the window of opportunity is wide-open in the Pac-10 and we should be asking, “If not now, when?”

At least the writers’ poll didn’t include any goofy votes for Arizona State, as did the coaches’ poll. (The Wildcats were 29th in the USA Today coaches’ poll, in case you forgot.)

OK, so which of the football scribes voted for Arizona? Here they are:

Cole Harvey (No. 22). He is from the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph.

Jon Wilner (No. 22). The former Arizona Daily Star basketball beat writer (and my former colleague there), writes the informative College Hotline blog for the San Jose Mercury News.

Kirk Herbstreit (No. 22). ESPN’s Herbie always has the Wildcats on his radar.

Chip Cosby (No. 24). Cosby writes for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

Tom Keegan (No. 25). He writes for the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World.

A couple of other notes:

The state of Arizona always gets one vote in the AP poll, usually bouncing back and forth between the Phoenix and Tucson media. The Arizona Republic’s Doug Haller has the state’s vote this season.

How weird is it that Middle Tennessee receives votes, but Tennessee doesn’t? And Central Michigan has votes, but Michigan doesn’t.

Follow me on Twitter @AGWildcatReport

Looking at Arizona’s remaining schedule, Chris Fowler said, “All they have to do is win out their last four games.”

Soon after, Desmond Howard added, “If they need to win out to become Pac-10 champs, I just don’t have confidence they can do that right now.”

As we pointed out last Saturday night, Arizona doesn’t have to win out … which might held Howard’s confidence level.

The Wildcats “just” have to beat Oregon (Nov. 21) and win at USC (Dec. 5), and then split games at Cal (today) and Arizona State (Nov. 28). If that happens, Arizona would win any tiebreaker at 7-2 in the conference.

That means Arizona can lose today’s game at Cal and still control its destiny in the Pac-10 race. No doubt, a loss wouldn’t be preferable in terms of confidence, momentum and national rankings, but, barring a major injury, it wouldn’t be anything resembling a disaster and the stakes for the game against Oregon wouldn’t change.

Anyway, ESPN showed coach Mike Stoops wired for sound during practice this week, and Fowler referred to him as “Mellow Mike” and called him “slightly less spring-loaded.” Good line.

UA fifth-year senior defensive lineman Donald Horton addressed this Monday, when I asked him what was the biggest difference in Stoops from 2005 (the coach’s second season) to now.

“He doesn’t seem as stressed,” Horton said. “We have conversations now. When I first came here, I was like, ‘I ain’t never talking to that dude.’ Now, we can have conversations and stuff like a regular dude.”

For the record, Kirk Herbstreit and Howard picked Arizona to beat Cal. Lee Corso picked the Bears, but offered no analysis other than to say the Wildcats were on the road.

Fowler dropped clues that the GameDay crew could head to Tucson next Saturday to promote the Arizona-Oregon game. GameDay has never been here.

“Win it for GameDay in Tucson,” Fowler said of today’s game against Cal.

After Corso picked Cal, Fowler turned to him to say, “And if we’re there, they’ll remember you picked against them.”

Anthony Gimino can be reached at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com