Shama: Big Ten May Drop 11 a.m. Football Starts

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BleedGopher

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Big Ten May Drop 11 a.m. Football Starts

Those dreaded 11 a.m. starting times for Big Ten football games may soon be only memories.

Big Ten schools located in the Central Time Zone, including Minnesota, have started many home games at 11 a.m. for years to accommodate the conference’s TV commitments. The network obligations haven’t been popular with many fans who found 11 a.m. too early in the day for their convenience or comfort.

Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners this week that a change for the coming fall is possible. “With the new negotiations that commissioner Delany has done with ABC, ESPN and the Big Ten Network, it looks very favorable that there may be a possibility that beginning as early as next fall we’ll be able to play at noon,” Maturi said.

If Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is successful, no future conference games will begin at 11 a.m. Start times here could be noon, 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Maturi said all the athletics directors in the Central Time Zone realize “what a challenge” it is for fans to deal with the 11 a.m. starts. Maturi said a noon kickoff, or later when possible, better accommodates tailgaters, students and particularly fans travelling from outside the metro area.

A major college football start time of 11 a.m. Central is uncommon outside the Big Ten. Locally, the Vikings traditional start times are noon and 3:15 p.m.

Noon kickoffs for Gophers games this fall could help attendance. The Gophers have a chance to sellout all their home games in the 50,000 seat TCF Bank Stadium but that isn’t assured now.

Maturi said the renewal process for season tickets is underway and that will help determine how much ticket inventory is available. The Gophers have an appealing home schedule that includes Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin.

New coach Jerry Kill has a team that was 3-9 last season but Maturi said fans like Kill’s “genuineness.” Maturi hopes Kill's popularity will continue to increase.

“I think coach Kill has done everything right,” Maturi said. “I think people have really identified with him. I think people like him. People want him to succeed and give him a chance. We’re hopeful, again, with an unbelievably attractive home schedule that people retain their season tickets. ..."

http://www.shamasportsheadliners.com/

Go Gophers!!
 


This would be great news. A 1pm earliest time would be better. However, 12noon would help a lot for the reasons mentioned in the article.
 

This would be great even for guys like me not at the games. I can get up, handle my Saturday business (chores and shopping, really) and then settle down for a 3:30 game
 

I am totally in favor of this happening for ticket holders and tailgaters. But it will screw MN, Wis, ILL, Iowa, NW and Neb as they will not get to play on ESPN anymore unless they move the games to afternoons or evenings which would be an even bigger victory but I don't see that happening.

Our games will be on the Deuce, BTN, ESPNU or the Ocho which is unfortunate as those channels are not as widely subscribed as the original ESPN and will not be seen by as many homes. I can't wait until all of the games are played on BTN and they can spread the games throughout the day (11 central, 2:30 central, 7:00 central) whenever they want to maximize the number of viewers.
 


Noon is fabulous. The ESPN is not a factor. The games will be on regular ESPN just as often. One hour makes no difference in the scheduling of a marquee match-up. You say they won't schedule Neb-Iow, Iow-Wisc, Wisc-Neb, or any Ill game? That's crazy talk. Most games are on BTN anyway, right? BTN schedules up to three games at the same time on the alternate channels. ESPN is just going to walk away from the other games? No. And ESPN2 is a downgrade? That's crazy talk. And ESPNU will become a standard package item.

1 PM isn't going to happen. That's 2 PM in the State of Indiana and the 4 schools to the east, so half the teams are EST and half are CST. Plus with the goofy divisions, 4 teams in the Legends are CST, and 2 are EST (Mich and Mich Lite); Leaders is the reverse.

That puts 1 PM games up against the 3:30 PM games. They are not going to schedule 4:30 PM games, as that puts the Big 10 up against the second half of MST and PST early games.
 

highwayman said:
Noon is fabulous. The ESPN is not a factor. The games will be on regular ESPN just as often. One hour makes no difference in the scheduling of a marquee match-up. You say they won't schedule Neb-Iow, Iow-Wisc, Wisc-Neb, or any Ill game? That's crazy talk. Most games are on BTN anyway, right? BTN schedules up to three games at the same time on the alternate channels. ESPN is just going to walk away from the other games? No. And ESPN2 is a downgrade? That's crazy talk. And ESPNU will become a standard package item.
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ESPN gets first dibs, right?
 

Good news. ESPN/ABC can show some flexibility. The SEC has half it's teams in Central time, yet never had to force any to have 11 AM kick-offs to my knowledge. No reason the B1G can't get the same treatment.
 




amen.jpeg
 

Awesome news. Can't stand 11am games...noon isn't a ton better but at least it's not 11!
 

HUZZAH!

But to answer your question, there have been a few 11 AM SEC starts. However, they seem to be concentrated at Ole Miss and Miss State.
 

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!
I have to leave @ 7 a.m to make kick-off....no tailgating. I would KILL for an extra hour!
 



This is great news. I hate 11'clock start times. Kid activities get in the way. If they want to attract youth to follow the program, the later starts are much better.
 

An extra hour of tailgating would be very nice.:cool02:
 

I could be wrong but I was thinking that College GameDay goes until 11:00 central and then everyone changes the channel to whatever one their team is playing on. I doubt that ESPN would schedule any of the noon CST games and sacrifice an hour of ratings.
 


This is excellent news! This gives me one more hour of optimism before the game and one less hour of depression after the game!!! ;)
 

I believe the U has a rule that you can only start tailgating 5 hours before kick-off but not before 7a.m. A noon start would be great so we could have our maximum tailgate time. An extra hour would be very helpful for grilling time, packing things up, getting to the stadium earlier, and a couple extra beers!
 

Geezo Beezo said:
I could be wrong but I was thinking that College GameDay goes until 11:00 central and then everyone changes the channel to whatever one their team is playing on. I doubt that ESPN would schedule any of the noon CST games and sacrifice an hour of ratings.
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Well, ABC/ESPN is one of the partners they are negotiating with so the B1G seems confident enough those negotiations to mention it publicly. Doesn't mean it will happen but it would suggest that ESPN isn't rejecting the idea out of hand either.
 



This is fantastic.

Not mentioned are the many other competitive disadvantages of being the 11am squad.
 

Okay, why aren't you at the games?

oleboy41 said:
This would be great even for guys like me not at the games. I can get up, handle my Saturday business (chores and shopping, really) and then settle down for a 3:30 game
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Okay, why aren't you at the games? Just curious.
 

Word said:
Awesome news. Can't stand 11am games...noon isn't a ton better but at least it's not 11!
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I agree..getting that extra hour helps the drive time from Rochester. 3:30 and 7:00 starts helps my love of playing golf Saturday mornings...Winning! ​
 


GoAUpher said:
Well, ABC/ESPN is one of the partners they are negotiating with so the B1G seems confident enough those negotiations to mention it publicly. Doesn't mean it will happen but it would suggest that ESPN isn't rejecting the idea out of hand either.
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It may be as simple as ESPN can only choose the EST games now. I.e. now there are 4 games, they choose 1-2 and the BTN gets 1-2. If they want noon EST kicks they will have to take the EST games and leave the Central games to the BTN. It could mean more 'Legend' games on the BTN and more 'Leader' games on The Mother Ship.
 

BleedGopher said:
Gophers athletics director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners this week that a change for the coming fall is possible.
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The only problem is with this statement. Does anyone think Maturi would even accept a call from this pseudo-journalist with a geocities-level webpage?
 

howeda7 said:
It may be as simple as ESPN can only choose the EST games now. I.e. now there are 4 games, they choose 1-2 and the BTN gets 1-2. If they want noon EST kicks they will have to take the EST games and leave the Central games to the BTN. It could mean more 'Legend' games on the BTN and more 'Leader' games on The Mother Ship.
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This is what I'm afraid of. Not a huge deal, especially with Nebraska coming aboard, pushing us further down the relevance ladder (at least as far as ESPN is concerned) anyway, but it would be nice to have some games at TCF on ESPN.
 


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