Oklahoma football: Someone in scheduling apparently doesn’t like Sooners
By Chip Rouse
The Oklahoma football season started out with three night games, but since then it seems the scheduling gods got wind of the Sooners good fortune.
Beginning with game No. 4, a home game with Texas Tech, the Sooner schedule flip flopped and instead of playing in the evening they drew one of the 11 a.m. national TV slots. Although most head coaches, including OU’s Lincoln Riley and Bob Stoops before him, are not fans of the early start time, they recognize that in order to fit into the TV schedule they are going to be asked to accommodate that broadcast slot several times throughout the 12-game regular season, and perhaps during conference championship week.
The question that arises is: What does “several times” really mean, or what should it mean?
Oklahoma’s last two games — Texas Tech and last Saturday at Kansas — have been 11 a.m. starts. The Red River Showdown game with Texas this Saturday is also scheduled for an 11 a.m. kickoff, as is next week’s game, at home against West Virginia. That is four consecutive Saturday’s the Sooners will have been scheduled to play in the early game.
What the coaches don’t like about the early time — which in the central time zone means an 11 o’clock kick, is that it makes it harder for fans, especially those traveling from out of town, to get to the stadium in time for the start of the game. It also is hard on recruiting visits because most high school games are on Friday nights and an 11 a.m. Saturday start creates a major logistical problem in getting recruiting prospects who are out of town and in other states to the game.
Riley has acknowledged on several occasions this season, and in the past, that scheduling, especially with network TV contracts and coverage decisions involved, is something he and his players can’t control. Like it or not, it is what it is, he says; it doesn’t really matter if it’s 6 a.m. in the parking lot, they’ll tell us where and when and we’ll show up and play.
“It doesn’t really matter if it’s 6 a.m. in the parking lot, they’ll tell us where and when and we’ll show up and play.” — OU head coach Lincoln Riley on having to play so many games at 11 a.m.
That’s a good attitude for Riley to have, but the truth of the matter is that Oklahoma has been singled out more than any other Big 12 team through the first half of the 2019 season for the early Saturday time slot.
Through Oct. 19, or seven games into the season, the Sooners will have played four early games, and there is a good chance there will be more before the regular season plays out in entirety.
One of the reasons for that is because of the Big 12’s TV agreement with the FOX Sports Media Group. FOX officials announced prior to the start of the 2019 season that the network would air its big Saturday college football game in the 11 a.m. time spot every week, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.
FOX carried the Texas Tech game and will also broadcast the Red River game this Saturday and the West Virginia contest the following week. All are 11 a.m. kickoffs.
Because of the Big 12 agreement with FOX and because of the Sooners high national ranking, it is apparent that OU fits right into the FOX game plan.
It should be noted, however, that the Big 12 also has a TV contract with ABC/ESPN, and that Oklahoma has appeared twice already this season as part of an ABC broadcast (on Sept. 1 at night against Houston and last Saturday at Kansas, which aired at 11 a.m.
After next weekend (Oct. 19), only Iowa State, in the Big 12, will have played as many as many games as Oklahoma at the early 11 a.m. start time. Kansas, West Virginia and Texas Tech will have all appeared three times in that time slot, but no other Big 12 team will have played more than one time prior to noon, and Baylor will have yet to play an early game.
There also appears to be a scheduling discrepancy at the national level. Top-ranked Alabama, for example, has only been scheduled to play one game in the early time slot through the Oct. 19 weekend, and the same in true for highly-ranked Georgia. Is that the result of the SEC not having a TV agreement with FOX, or just bad fortune for Oklahoma and the Big 12 because they do?
It’s a good thing that OU’s Riley is willing go play anyone, anywhere at any time the Sooners are told to do so, because so far this season it appears the message going out to Norman is be sure and get a good night’s sleep Friday night and wake up bright and early ready to play later that morning.