The University of Hawaii football team feels a little like a first-round draft pick after FOX selected it from among more than 20 opening-week games for the network’s first regular-season national TV contest.

Of course, the Warriors will play USC, a team with a few first-round NFL Draft prospects, in that Sept. 1 season opener at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The East Coast prime-time game will be available to 99 percent of U.S. TV households, according to FOX, making it the largest potential audience for a UH game since the 2008 Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia. Nearly eight million households saw Georgia beat UH, 41-10, also on FOX.

Locally, the USC game will be carried by KHON Channel 2, at 1:30 p.m. Hawaii time, according to FOX.

"Wow! Beautiful. Can’t wait," said head coach Norm Chow, who will make his UH debut in the game. Chow, who was offensive coordinator at USC during two national championship seasons, said, "It is exciting and, obviously, the task is huge, but we’ll look forward to the challenge. There’s nothing like having a great big challenge to start the season."

Quarterback Matt Barkley, the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, and safety T.J. McDonald are among the leading NFL prospects at USC. The Trojans are expected to open in the top five of the preseason polls.

This is the first year of the Pac-12’s record-setting 12-season, $2.7 billion package with TV partners FOX and ESPN/ABC. The conference said FOX got the first pick of the conference’s opening-week inventory, selecting the USC-UH game.

But while it is a potential big winner for KHON, whose last UH game was the Sugar Bowl, it could have an impact on the school’s pay-per-view deal with Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

With the USC game going to FOX, at least three of UH’s 12 games, all marquee contests, will be available outside the school’s pay-per-view package with Oceanic. It remains to be seen if UH can furnish the requisite seven football games to Oceanic to be assured its $2.3 million annual guarantee.

ESPN has announced it will show the Sept. 28 UH game at Brigham Young and Nov. 16 game at Air Force.

The Mountain West Conference, which UH joins July 1, has assured UH it will retain the rights to games against Lamar, South Alabama and New Mexico while disposition of the Fresno State and Colorado State games is up in the air.

The NBC Sports Network has selected two games (Nevada and Boise State), and the CBS Sports Network (San Diego State) one. Those might be available to Oceanic.