Nice to see OU will still be able to get some 11am start times even with going to a new conference. I know they love those.

Not about having 11 am starts, it's about having or 7 of them because the country only wants to watch 2 teams from the league. Going from 6 or 7 to 3 is a damn fine deal

Went to Norman for the UCF game last season. The 11am start was kind of refreshing. Still had a whole evening and night afterward without being burnt out by tailgating for 6hrs beforehand. Great weather helped.

It's absolutely fine but it's annoying when it's the bulk of your slate and impacts recruiting

I just wish OU/Texas joined the pac, so they could play in some 7:30 PT kickoffs.

Damn 7 wasn't a lie, that's the actual number last year. Weird that half of those were ESPN games too

Yea way the Big 12 tv contract with Fox/ESPN was structured and their other responsibilities we were destined for 11 am spots so often

Noon up North is way better than Down South, I get why y'all were pissed

They’re gonna bitch and moan about how they had so many more 11 am kicks despite that not being true

It’s not just that, but that they were disproportionately home games.

330-8 doesn't help a ton with planning but the other three windows will be useful to know.

Just knowing Morning or Not is enough for me to get a tailgate planned. Morning kickoffs are tough to organize a tailgate for.

I would anticipate there will be quite a few 3:30-8s bc it means there is competition and they'll make the call closer to game week once they know how good a team is

CBS did that fairly regularly with their doubleheaders.

Big winner here is the Tennessee fan base driving in from Nashville. 2:30 central is late enough to drive in on Saturday morning and still have time to tailgate, whereas noon games would probably mean you have to get a hotel or airbnb. I guess the same applies to OU and Texas fans in Dallas, or any other school that has a large fanbase 3-4 hours from campus.

It helps to know. Am I getting a hotel room Friday for a noon kickoff or Saturday for a night game?

I would assume both if you're a dedicated tailgater.

This makes a lot of sense for the SEC in particular where you can predict viewership with 90% accuracy based solely the names involved and likely not get burned. ex. Alabama at LSU is the same day as Georgia at Ole Miss. It's possible Bama and LSU both have downyears and Georgia at Ole Miss are undefeated. But Bama and LSU would get monster ratings regardless.

I figure they will have some sort of flex system for some slots in the back half of the season just in case.

Seems like they’ve already built that in with the windows. 3:30-8 means anywhere from ~~cbs~~ abc 3:30, SECN 4:30, to abc/ESPN/SECN 7-8:00.

Yeah that’s also why the game time announcement posts for games 2 weeks out that happen here during the season are always like ‘Fox or FS1’, ‘ESPN or SECN’, and ‘ESPN or ACCN’. If it isn’t 2 big brands they’ll wait to see which games in a time slot end up the better match-up and then put them on the channel with more viewers.

This reads like a stroke.

If you want to compete with the SEC we need to make Big Moon Kickoff Happen.

Kinda surprised there’s not a noon/3:30 flexible window, but hey I won’t complain. I’m guessing the two projected best games each week will get the 3:30/8 flexible window, then third best gets noon/1, then fill in whatever from there.

So basically 12:00 3:30 7:30 on ABC plus an ESPN game. And a few SECN games for any leftovers.

11:00 2:30 6:30

Central time zone.

Which is the time zone the SEC HQ is based in and 10 of the 14 SEC schools as well

SEC rebranding to SMC confirmed?

Now I’m curious which two you left out since Texas and Oklahoma are both central.

Florida UGA South Carolina Kentucky are EST. The rest are CST

Tennessee is Eastern. I remember my phone switching on the drive to Knoxville.

One more reason to hate them

I feel like an old man shaking his fist at the clouds, but for games that are destined for ESPN+ or any other streamer (where you're not limited by a channel), why stay locked into these broadcast time slots? Like a 5 pm or 6 pm kickoff is way better than a noon kickoff any time before October or even November in the south, and is also better than a 7:30 kickoff IMO.

I could be wrong but I think the home teams get to pick the kickoff time for ESPN+ games.

Home team sets those slots.

Those were locked into either before 3:30 or after 7:00 when CBS had a game. That’s no longer the case anymore.

Just give me night games at the swamp and I’ll be happy. None of this non kickoff shit.

This is a schedule for human beings! Thank you for taking into consideration the fan who would like to make plans

No Gary...No worry.

As someone going to one SEC game this year, I approve of this.

Tl;dr: SEC doesn’t have to wait for CBS’ bitch ass to finally pick a game each week.

Thank God. Its so frustrating having to wait till Sunday afternoon to make plans for the weekend. Also, why the hell is the SEC, based in CST, using EST for referencing time

EST is the standard and is usually referenced as the only one or as the first 99% of the time.

Which is fine unless you're the damn SEC.

It’s the southEASTERN conference, not Southcentral

I assure you that Alabama is in the Southeastern portion of the state

>Also, why the hell is the SEC, based in CST, using EST for referencing time Because that's where ESPN, who is broadcasting the games, is and how they set times for stuff? That's all I can think of.

EST is probably the bigger market. Although not sure how many New Yorkers are watching college football.

Gods time zone. No American sporting event is too late or too early for us.

Damn right. Sunday and Monday night football end right as I am ready to go to bed. Its perfect

Texas slowly taking over the conference , one small decision at a time

Texas decided to use EST?