CU Buffs giant game with USC will have a stupid kickoff time
Sep 18, 2023, 11:00 AM
If you’re going to watch Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes this year, you’ll have to be up before sunrise or be at Folsom Field after midnight.
Again the CU Buffs have been scheduled to play at 10 a.m., tying with Week 2’s game against Nebraska for the earliest kickoff in recent memory at home. That means Coach Prime has run out behind Ralphie twice at 10 a.m. and once in Week 3 in a contest against Colorado State that ended in overtime the next morning.
The good news is the Week 5 game is on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff across country against USC. Depending on how the Buffs play Oregon this coming weekend, they and the Trojans could each be ranked as Heisman hopefuls Shedeur Sanders and Caleb Williams square off.
So yes it’s good that Colorado is getting the attention of the nation but it’s not great TV continues to run college football with no regard for the fan—one day this will haunt.
Just think, do the Broncos play at 11 a.m. on Sundays in Denver? No, never. In fact, the Broncos have never kicked at 11 a.m., the earliest was an 11:30 a.m. kick for the 1989 AFC Championship Game.
Part of what makes college football great is the pageantry, which is widely known. It’s hard to be a participant in all of that fun when being a fan becomes a job. And yes, setting your alarm prior to your normal 9-5 just to get to Folsom Field, let alone tailgate and meet with other Buffs does ruin part of the experience—let alone the students who of course do not want to wake up at 10 a.m. It’s your Saturday, it’s football, it’s supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable—but the TV networks only care about those on the couch not those in their giant studios we call stadiums.
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