It Gets Late Too Early at Red River

Come Saturday morning, Oklahoma and Texas fans are going to be united for the briefest moment before they commence their annual hatefest. Bleary eyed, potentially still drunk, they'll all be cursing when their alarms go off shortly after dawn. For a few hours, being clad in red or burnt orange or crimson doesn't matter, every fan is going to be thinking: How in the hell do I have to set an alarm to get up in time to watch Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford lock and load against one another for the third consecutive year?

Yep, the biggest game of the Big 12 season kicks off shortly after dawn, at 11 local time in Dallas. If you've ever questioned what the Big 12's television status is, the morning kickoff for Texas-Oklahoma, the biggest game with the greatest national title implications in the country this Saturday, proves the Big 12 has no cachet. And that should make you steaming mad no matter where you reside in Big 12 country.

Why?

Because recruits are driven to make their decision by the perception of the conference. Even if a recruit doesn't get an offer from Texas or Oklahoma, another Big 12 school's connection to these programs is valuable. A Big 12 coach may not be able to sell playing in the Red River Rivalry, but he can sell playing against those schools. And in this day and age, when perception of conference strength matters so much and the neighboring SEC is on every channel, you need to put your best cleat forward. And make no mistake about it, the Big 12's best cleat is Oklahoma-Texas.

Every year, there are idiotic scheduling decisions in college football, but Texas-Oklahoma as a consistently early kickoff makes zero sense to me (The game has swung from noon ET to 3:30 ET in recent years). In general I'm opposed to early kickoffs for college games featuring Southern teams because the weather is so good most of the season that the culture, the pageantry, the experience of college football should be paramount. My opposition to early kickoffs down South is one strong reason why I've ripped Jefferson Pilot/Lincoln Financial/Raycom in the past for their games. But at least those games weren't the most desirable of the day in conference, typically those were the least entertaining matchups of the weekend.

What's more, typically the only games that kickoff at noon ET are Big Ten or Big East games. I don't think it makes a ton of sense, for instance, that four Big Ten games kickoff at the exact same time this weekend, but I can appreciate that's a tradition of sorts. And, at the very least, that's typically an hour later in local time. But Texas-Oklahoma at 11? That's a crime against football humanity.

Especially for Texas, who is seeking to prove that they're a national title contender. You think very many people on the West Coast are going to be tuning in at 9AM to see how Texas matches up with a bitter rival? How about potential recruits, teenagers, all over the country? How many of those guys are even going to be awake? Even more ominous, how many big college football fans are going to flip around stations with their remote on Saturday afternoon only to find out that they've missed most of Texas Oklahoma?

All because the Big 12 has a really crappy television contract. And it ain't getting better. Their deal with ESPN/ABC runs through 2016. At a minimum, you'd think the biggest game of the season in the Big 12 would be in primetime. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

That's despite the fact that the top-rated games in college football this season are all night games on broadcast television. None of that matters, Texas and Oklahoma will end closer to dawn on Saturday than the witching hour on Sunday. Inexplicably, ABC doesn't have a night game this week. Even more inexplicably, rather than, at a minimum, show the entire nation Texas-Oklahoma in the afternoon, they've elected to split regional coverage and squeeze this game in early, before the regional games kick off. What games are we able to see at 3:30 in our respective wings of the country? Minnesota at Penn State, Texas Tech at Nebraska, Cal at UCLA, and, wait for it, N.C. State at Boston College.

Seriously, that's what we've got instead? Do you really think the regional television audience for Boston College-N.C. State is higher than what the network would draw if they showed a really colorful aquarium instead?

It's nonsensical that Texas and Oklahoma are letting this happen and even more nonsensical for the Big 12 to permit this game to be played outside of primetime. And if this is a restriction instituted by the Texas State Fair, don't you think it's high time that Texas and Oklahoma both gave the Heisman to the state fair officials? Who even goes to the state fair anywhere except for pregnant 13 year old's and their GED-pursuing Romeos? At a time when the SEC is selling every program to the nation, the Big 12 can't even sell its best game to the nation when most people will see it.

Again.

You don't think the Big 12's television contract as compared to the SEC's has something to do with Alabama passing Texas in the polls? Granted there's a strong argument that Alabama has played the best in the country so far, but, guess what, every pollster in the country has been watching Alabama play all season. Texas? Outside of their primetime game against Texas Tech, no one has seen this team play this year. The only possible benefit to either team is that Big Game Bob Stoops might convince his team to play loose since it's so early in the day it can't actually be an important tilt.

An unscientific poll of Texas and Oklahoma fans claims that one reason this game kicks off early is a desire to limit the excessive drinking. If so, that's an incredibly dumb rationale. It snatches away the revenue from bars and restaurants in the city of Dallas, discourages overnight stays, probably contributes to drunken driving by ending so early that everyone, regardless of inebriation, tries to get back home, and strips away the pomp and circumstance from one of America's best rivalries.

It's over so early that no one even knew it was coming. So early that, shudder, I'm always afraid the Texas pom squad will forget their chaps. Texas governor Rick Perry should take this under consideration and threaten secession.



In the event the Big 12 accepts the early kickoff so they can get a second Big 12 game on regional coverage, shame on them. One game in primetime between two powers is more valuable than a morning kickoff followed by a regional afternoon game. Plus, it devalues the experience for the fans who are putting their money, time, and travel on the line to see the game in person. I defy you to find someone under the age of 80 who wouldn't prefer that Texas Oklahoma took place later in the day. So fans of both teams could savor their Friday night, enjoy the build-up, instead of looking down at their watches at 9PM and doing the math to figure out how many hours of sleep they can get by on?