The "red hat," the official Big Ten timekeeper, accidentally stopped the game clock for about two minutes during our Pregame show. He bumped the button with his elbow. As a result we lost our time-sync with the Air Force. (The stadium crew tried to recalculate and resync, but didn't get it right.)
Based on the (incorrect) game clock, they asked the band to fill, so we increased the length of one of our 10-second breaks and also inserted Mortal Kombat. The team wasn't yet in the tunnel. The team came out of the locker room late (on-time based on what the game clock showed, but late real-time).
So, instead of the flyover occurring at the end of the National Anthem, it happened as the team was taking the field and we were playing the Rouser.
(We have three spots in pregame that are scheduled 10 second breaks for the band. A chance for them to catch their breath, but also a chance for us to adjust our timing by shortening or lengthening the break so we can land in our final set within 5 seconds of when we want. If the tempo is just a little quick on one tune, we will take a longer break, if it's a bit slow, a shorter one.)
Timing of the National Anthem is critical for the TV networks. By federal law, you cannot cut away and go to commercial or back to the studio during the anthem. If you show any part of it you have to stay there until the end. So, networks usually prefer to go to commercial or to studio before the anthem begins. On site network producers get really nervous about it. It's pretty funny for us when they come up to us in a panic before the game wanting to know what time we'll be playing the anthem. We ask them what time they will break away, translate that to game clock, bump our pregame show up or back by 30 seconds or expand or contract the 10 second breaks so we land the drumroll and announcement script exactly when they want it.
