It wasn’t that long ago that head coach Bob Stoops was expressing his displeasure at having to play so many night games. Now it seems that the Sooners are having to play a disproportionate number of early 11 a.m. starts, and this has Oklahoma head coach just as agitated.
The Sooners played an 11 o’clock game last week, hosting Tulsa, and are set for a second consecutive 11 a.m. kickoff at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium next Saturday, when West Virginia will be the opponent.
The Big 12’s current television deal has games involving conference teams scheduled for late morning, mid-afternoon and evening time slots throughout the season, with the contests considered to be more competitive, based on the flow of the season, generally pegged for the more prime viewing times for Saturday college football.
Sep 19, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops speaks to Tulsa Golden Hurricane head coach Philip Montgomery prior to the game at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Since the 2013 season, though, Oklahoma and Iowa State have both had seven home dates scheduled in the 11 a.m. time slot. Kansas is right there also, with six 11 a.m. kickoffs over the past two-plus seasons. Yet, according to information researched by the sports staff at the Oklahoma City Oklahoman daily newspaper, Baylor and Texas have not had one home game scheduled in the early Saturday time slot.
It also appears highly probable that the annual Red River Showdown rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas between the Sooners and Texas Longhorns the weekend after next will be an 11 a.m. start for what would be the fifth consecutive year.
Asked about this apparent disparity that doesn’t seem to be equally shared by other Big 12 schools, head coach Bob Stoops told the Oklahoman recently, “I do have a problem with it. I’m sure our administration does and fans do…Hopefully everybody can have a fair amount of early and late kicks and mix it up a little bit better.”
The major concern of Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione has to do with the limitation and ostensible inconvenience the early starts impose on the fans. But don’t kid yourself, at the heart of the issue is the potential negative economic impact that comes from an early kickoff as compared with one of the later Saturday starting times.
With 100 consecutive home sellouts and a football program as successful as the Sooners have been in its 17 seasons under Stoops, Oklahoma does not have difficulty filling its 80,000-plus stadium seats on game days, regardless of what time the game is played. But with the noticeable disparity that is developing with OU having to play more than its fair share of games at the early end of the Saturday schedule, it is beginning to rub a growing number of Sooner fans the wrong way.
“We understand that by accepting television contracts and giving them the rights to games, we don’t have as much leverage to pick and choose game times as we would otherwise,” Castiglione said in an interview with the Oklahoman. “We’re trying…Either way, we have to find a way to minimize this.
“I do have a problem with it. Hopefully, everybody can have a fair amount of early and late kicks and mix it up a little bit better.” —Bob Stoops, OU head coach
“I’ve had a number of fans reach out to us, and I agree. I am carrying their frustrations to our television partners.”
The early kickoffs put a crimp in the fan experience by making it less convenient for the many fans who like to tailgate before the games, and also poses a problem for Sooner fans who travel from outside the Oklahoma City area to attend home games.
While the coaches and fans would prefer a more equitable distribution of the 11 a.m-kickoff games among the other Big 12 teams, the players are not as bothered by the early start as the other interested parties.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield, for one, likes playing earlier rather than later. “I like getting out there and playing right away,” Mayfield told Oklahoman staff writer Ryan Aber. “I don’t like waiting around. I like to get out there, wake up and be able to go out and play and not have to think about it too long.”
Based on the way the Sooner starting quarterback performed in the early start last weekend against Tulsa – accounting for 572 yards of the Sooners’ 773 total offensive yards in the game – it doesn’t appear Oklahoma suffers all that much on the field from the early Saturday call.