Why Oklahoma fans have to deal with early kickoffs this year - Dallas News

Iceland12

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
24,348
Reaction score
2,240
Points
113
Sounds like a lot of complaints from Gopher fans.

"Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione was ticked. So was football coach Lincoln Riley, who blew off steam in a call to Castiglione and then reiterated his position at a tour stop in Tulsa.

"I don't agree with it, but we're not the only ones making the call on it," Riley said, according to online reports. "There needs to be some equity. You don't need to have a string of [early starts]."..

It's not a case of the Big 12 failing to have the back of its members. Bowlsby wouldn't even say that Big 12 has an advisory capacity. At best, Bowlsby said, the Big 12 gets "a chance to provide input" to broadcast partners Fox and ESPN, but the final call is up to the networks.

In other words, it's a TV deal.

Fox and ESPN have a selection rotation each year on Big 12 games -- which is one reason now that Texas-OU seems to bounce back and forth between the two. There's a whole lot of other factors, too, from heat concerns in the early season to balancing the schedule for other top games on their own or other networks...

The Oklahoman researched Big 12 start times in the wake of the controversy. Since 2012, the newspaper reported, Oklahoma has had 11 early kickoffs (defined as 11 a.m. or noon), tied with TCU for fourth in the Big 12, behind Iowa State (15), West Virginia (15) and Kansas (14).

So Bowlsby is right that some things are cyclical.

It's also worth noting as well that the Big 12 meetings ended on a high note with a payout of $36.5 million per school, a lot of that payday coming from -- you guessed it -- the TV contracts with Fox and ESPN.


https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/co...lahoma-football-fans-deal-early-kickoffs-year
 

So this is not an OU thing. This is a college football thing.

The early broadcast window has become hip.

In recent years, both ABC and Fox have regularly been televising tripleheaders on Saturdays. And with both adding the early window, a new philosophy has taken hold. Put a marquee team or preferably a marquee matchup in the 11 a.m. slot, and maybe you can hold viewers all day long. For example, on Sept. 8, Fox will televise Iowa State-Iowa and Southern Cal-Stanford after OU-UCLA.

And at other times, the networks concede the primetime competition. For example, on Sept. 1, ABC has Alabama-Louisville and NBC has Notre Dame-Michigan. Fox had no similar matchup, so it is putting Nebraska-Akron at 7 that night, basically forfeiting the ratings battle and hoping the Sooners can help Fox win the 11 a.m. window.

The early window has replaced the afternoon window as the more marquee real estate. Perhaps ABC/ESPN and Fox have decided not to battle with CBS' Southeastern Conference package. Whatever the case, there are more Big 12 games at 11 a.m. (noon Eastern) than in the past.

Of the 100 kickoffs determined by the Big 12 contracts the last two years, 44 have been placed in the early window. In the previous four years, only 30.7 percent of Big 12 games kicked off early. And it's not just the Big 12. Ohio State (against Oregon State on ABC) and Clemson (against Furman on the ACC Network) also kick off in that window on Sept. 1...

The afternoon window has lost luster because apparently fewer people watch games at those times. Many hardcore college football fans are headed to the stadium or returning from the stadium or at the stadium in the middle of the day. Casual fans often have other things going in the middle of the day. More people are at home early and late than in the middle of the day
.

“The thing that complicates the whole scheduling aspect of it is we tend to look at it very much within our conference,” said OSU deputy athletic director Chad Weiberg.

“The networks are juggling all the schedules across the country. Historically, there's been a shift in what were the national games vs. what were the regional games. At one point, the morning games were more considered the regional games. That's almost flipped a little bit.”

https://newsok.com/article/5596758/ou-football-not-the-only-program-hit-with-early-kickoffs
 





Top Bottom