Possible end of 11 am games?

Donate To GopherHole
A

at the bar

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
291
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Don't think it's been mentioned yet on this board but on Rosen's Sport Sunday show, AD Maturi said he doesn't like 11 am games and will bring up the topic of later game times at the next B11 meeting. He said east coast teams start at noon locally at the very earliest. Noon or 1 pm starts would be a better option Maturi said.

I not sure how much power Maturi has or when TV contracts can be changed but it's good to know that MN supports changing start times to later in the day.
 

at the bar said:
Don't think it's been mentioned yet on this board but on Rosen's Sport Sunday show, AD Maturi said he doesn't like 11 am games and will bring up the topic of later game times at the next B11 meeting. He said east coast teams start at noon locally at the very earliest. Noon or 1 pm starts would be a better option Maturi said.

I not sure how much power Maturi has or when TV contracts can be changed but it's good to know that MN supports changing start times to later in the day.
Click to expand...

Don't get your hopes up. A number of teams have been vocal about this issue to no avail (most notably Penn State, who I would imagine holds a little more sway than we do).
 

I've noticed that the BTN has aired very few 2:30 games. Maybe they should start airing some 2:30 games, and then we wouldn't have so many 11 am games.
 

RodentRampage said:
I've noticed that the BTN has aired very few 2:30 games. Maybe they should start airing some 2:30 games, and then we wouldn't have so many 11 am games.
Click to expand...

ABC/ESPN pays the Big 10 a lof of money to have an exclusive on the 2:30 start time. If ABC/ESPN has a Big Ten game starting at 2:30, no other Big Ten game can be on during that window. The conference takes the money, so I don't think there will be a change any time soon.

Maturi and any one else in the conference can talk about it all they want, but everybody knows the rules.
 

Why are there so many 2:30 games on Nov. 21st? It seems to me an oddity.
 



Soooo sick of 11 AM games. Night games are flat out better. Better atmosphere, 100% of the time. I'm not saying you can't have a good atmosphere at 11 AM games, but an intense game at 7 PM is just simply more fun than an intense game at 11.
 

I wish the mortgage company would stop billing me and just let me live in my house for free.
I wish my 3-year-old son would be a perfect angel, never throw tantrums, and would comply perfectly and immediately with every request.
I wish I would win the Powerball tomorrow.
I wish someone would offer me a no-show job and pay me $100/hr for doing nothing.

Each of the above things is about as likely to happen as the Big Ten not having 11 am games.
 




TV has really screwed up the stadium experience. The loooooooooooong TV timeouts not to mention the 11:00 AM starts. Everyone hates the 11:00 AM starts but that is what the tv$$$ dictates. I hope Maturi can get some traction but I won't hold my breath. When I was at the game at Ohio State, the locals were complaining about a noon start. Imagine how the big three (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State) would howl if they had to play their games locally at 11:00...
 

I dont understand why they cant get it set up where the games in the Eastern Time Zone use that time slot. That extra hour makes a huge difference. With 6 of 11 teams playing in the eastern time zone, how do we get screwed with all the 11am games.
 

Since there is a 2:30 block on games due to ABC maybe the B11 will move more games from 11 am to 6 pm. I'd rather have a few of games at 11, one at 2:30 as required and a few at 6 each week. I would think the B11 TV network would like this as more viewers could see more games because they are more spread out (not all at 11 am). I can dream, can't I?
 




at the bar said:
Since there is a 2:30 block on games due to ABC maybe the B11 will move more games from 11 am to 6 pm. I'd rather have a few of games at 11, one at 2:30 as required and a few at 6 each week. I would think the B11 TV network would like this as more viewers could see more games because they are more spread out (not all at 11 am). I can dream, can't I?
Click to expand...

Don't forget about the Big 10 ban on games starting later then 2:30 in November too.....that is like half of the actual big ten season....
 

Possible scheduling solutions (LONG)

I don’t like 11:00 games either. Even noon would be a significant improvement. I don’t know how much longer the TV contracts run, but the one thing that gives me a ray of hope is the way the conference has made it a priority in basketball to get all of the conference games on TV in their own window. That’s why most of our weekday home games start at 6:00 or 8:00 rather than 7:00. Obviously, football games are longer and can’t be spread out through the whole week so there will necessarily be some overlap, but improvements could be made. For example:

The next ABC/ESPN contract could be written not to require exclusivity. Would it result in less money? Probably so, but if the concern is that they are fragmenting the Big Ten audience, I think that’s somewhat overblown. They already have (or had) weeks where Big Ten games are on both ESPN and ESPN2 at 11:00, sometimes with another couple of games on BTN. Non-exclusivity would allow games to start at noon local time in both the Eastern and Central time zones. The noon Central games would still be over by about 3:00 or 3:15, so those fans inclined to do so could flip over to the 2:30 game and not have missed much. BTN already shows games on overflow channels, so it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust to two different start times.

If the Big Ten was willing to change a couple of scheduling traditions you could have a nationally televised game on Thursday night and windows on Saturday of 11:00, 2:30 and 6:00. That’s three Saturday slots for what would normally be four other conference games and one non-conference game, so there could still be an exclusive window during the day for ABC/ESPN. Yes, the league would have to allow night games in November and I am sure that there are some schools where there would be logistical problems with weeknight games, including here, but it could probably be worked out most places if it was scheduled before the start of the year and rotated so no team played at home on a Thursday more than once a year.

If the schedule was extended a week or two to provide teams with an additional bye week, there would be fewer games each week and make a larger number of games available in “exclusive” windows. (That also would address the concerns that some have about the long pre-bowl layoff.)

Even if they need to have an exclusive window for ABC/ESPN, that window could be at 11:00 rather than 2:30. My guess is that most schools (and all those in the Central time zone) and their fan bases would prefer the bulk of the games at 2:30 (or 3:30) versus 11:00am (or noon).

By adopting one or more of these ideas, I think the schedule and the fan experience would be improved.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I wish the mortgage company would stop billing me and just let me live in my house for free.
I wish my 3-year-old son would be a perfect angel, never throw tantrums, and would comply perfectly and immediately with every request.
I wish I would win the Powerball tomorrow.
I wish someone would offer me a no-show job and pay me $100/hr for doing nothing.

Each of the above things is about as likely to happen as the Big Ten not having 11 am games.
Click to expand...

LOL. I love your vision and would even settle for #2 over the others. No way that Maturi has the power to swim against the current in this one. He's going up against way too much big money.
 

11 AM destroys the atmosphere

Tough for locals...imagine if you are driving form outside metro...I am willing to bet student attendance would go up if there were more night games as well. 6PM basketball bites as well. Tough to get out of work and get to the game ... stuck with arena food and no "Big Ten Subs".
 

11AM may destroy the atmosphere at the U but not at other B10 football schools.
 

mittens22 said:
11AM may destroy the atmosphere at the U but not at other B10 football schools.
Click to expand...

Having been to 11 AM starts at both Iowa and Wisconsin, it does a number on their atmospheres as well. Wisconsin takes a bigger hit than Iowa, but it's still a hit.
 

Television contracts control the game times. The Big Ten conference is going to schedule the games at the times that generate the largest television revenue. Game day atmosphere is not weighed heavily when considering kickoff times.

I'm sure ABC pays a lot for the 2:30 exclusivity so that being the case it would be nice if the BTN could show one more night game each week and one less 11am game. However, my guess is that 11am games still draw higher ratings than night games.
 

mittens22 said:
11AM may destroy the atmosphere at the U but not at other B10 football schools.
Click to expand...

Yes it does. Been to every school and many complain about noon starts. Practically everyone wants 2:30 starts. Schools where people drive long distances like later starts but not night games. We could do a Friday or Thursday game here and there like a lot of people.
 

Also while we're at it, abolish the "no night games in November" bulls--- rule.
 

we like 11 am games. Get up earlier. Cal - good game atmosphere. Wisconsin - good game atmosphere. Illinois - good second half.

Win, win, win and the atmosphere will get better.
 

GVBadger said:
ABC/ESPN pays the Big 10 a lof of money to have an exclusive on the 2:30 start time. If ABC/ESPN has a Big Ten game starting at 2:30, no other Big Ten game can be on during that window. The conference takes the money, so I don't think there will be a change any time soon.

Maturi and any one else in the conference can talk about it all they want, but everybody knows the rules.
Click to expand...

Contracts get renegotiated and ammended all the time. And whatever its worth to ABC/ESPN to have the exclusive, I highly doubt is an amount of money that causes the exclusive to make sense to the conferences as a stand-alone issue.

In other words, it was a botched negotiation point for the Big Ten. And it's something that obviously needs to be discussed.
 

Absolutely hate the 11 a.m. starting times. The least they could do would be to stack the games at noon, 3:30 and 7, Central Time. The Gophers used to play at 1 or 1:30 in the old days. In many ways, 2:30 for home games would be perfect, if we could ever get that time slot.
 

Yeah, the Gophers used to play at 1 when they were on local t.v. It comes down to t.v. deals and money.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
The least they could do would be to stack the games at noon, 3:30 and 7, Central Time.
Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY what Maturi told Mike Max the other night. He'd like to see the entire day simply pushed back an hour. Start the early games at noon (Central Time), the ABC exclusive game at 3:30pm (Central Time), and the night games at 7pm (Central Time).

I do think the extra hour before those first games would help. To me (a guy who enjoys to sleep in a little later on Saturdays) that extra hour from 11am to noon would make a world of difference!
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom