Last week, the benefits of staggered start times were made very apparent, as the TCU-Texas Tech thriller — starting at 4:45 Eastern time — had its own stage when it ended.
Only California-Washington also ended near the time Frogs-Red Raiders concluded. Yes, you missed the beginning of the 7:30 and 8:05 p.m. Eastern kicks, but the stacks of 3:30 games had already finished. If TCU-Texas Tech was a 3:30 kick, it would have been one game among many to end near 7. More precisely and instructively, we would have been tearing our hair out switching between the Tennessee-Florida endgame and TCU-Tech. With the staggered start, we were able to see more of each ending. As it was, the Oklahoma State-Texas endgame competed with the Vols-Gators finish, but at least the lineup wasn’t more crowded.
Staggered start times are a blessing. This much was reaffirmed in (and by) week four.
Naturally, college football being college football, we don’t have staggered starts to look forward to in week five. That’s how this sport rolls, of course. It can’t stand prosperity for very long.
Let’s see what we have in store for us this week, noting how a highly flawed schedule could be (should be) improved.
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This is the best noon Eastern time slate of the season so far. West Virginia-Oklahoma, Iowa-Wisconsin, Minnesota-Northwestern, and an important American / Group of Five game between Houston and Tulsa are all on the docket.
In a more ideal world, Houston-Tulsa (on CBS Sports Network would move to 12:45 as part of a modest slide-back for CBS SN’s full Saturday schedule. CBS SN could show Air Force-Navy at 4:15 instead of 3:30; Vanderbilt-Middle Tennessee at 8 instead of 7; and Fresno State-San Diego State at 11:30 Eastern (8:30 local) instead of 10:30.
With two important Big Ten games starting at noon, a better setup would push one of those games to 12:30, so that a moderate stagger would exist there. Moving two of the four noon games by at least 30 minutes would enable all four of the above games to breathe more.
You will note, if you look at the schedule for week five, that only two games start between 12:10 (noon plus pregame-show filler time) and 3 Eastern: Louisville-North Carolina State a little after 12:30, and Ohio-Akron at 2. That’s it. The vast amount of unused time-slotting in those three hours is why so many games start at the same time. This feeds into the problem with the 3:30 window.
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At 3:30 on Saturday, it’s true that Alabama-Georgia is the obvious showcase game. Yet, while you might keep your TV on CBS for that reason, you are not going to be able to give as much attention to Ohio State, Florida State, Baylor, Georgia Tech, or the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy game between Air Force and Navy. All those teams (and the games involving them) start at 3:30.
With CBS having just that one game, Bama-Georgia could be moved to 5 Eastern, but again, college football television doesn’t seem ready for that.
Much as only two games start between (roughly) noon and 3 Eastern on Saturday, no games start between roughly 4 and 7 Eastern. No 4:45 kickoffs such as TCU-Texas Tech; no 5 Eastern or 6 Eastern kickoffs as we’ve seen in recent weeks. So many interesting games are on tap, but they all start at the same time. It’s so lamentable, and it’s so preventable, but the networks with few(er) commitments — basically, “not ESPN” — aren’t willing to schedule into new time slots.
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In the night window, Ole Miss-Florida and Arkansas-Tennessee both start at the same time, 7 Eastern. Mississippi State-Texas A&M starts at 7:30, so there’s at least a small gap with Ole Miss-Florida. With Notre Dame-Clemson starting around 8:10, the night window will be a little better for viewing than the early- and middle-afternoon windows.
As was the case last week, a Pac-12 game airs at 10:30 Eastern against minimal competition. However, Arizona-Stanford could be savored even more if, as mentioned several paragraphs above, Fresno State-San Diego State could be moved back to 11:30. As it is, there’s a little more clutter after 10 Eastern this week, with Oregon-Colorado on ESPN at 10 (that game will probably start around 10:12 on ESPNEWS, since it has such a short window after Ole Miss-Florida), and Hawaii-Boise State on ESPN2 at 10:15 (probably with a 10:21 kick, maybe on another channel or stream as well before the Arkansas-Tennessee game finishes).
College football could let games breathe, by expanding into more time slots. Week five shows, however, that the sport is still slow to react in terms of making itself supremely accessible on the tube.
