Image: Georgia Sports Communications
Well. Damn. I'm not sure when we joined the Big 10 and signed up for all these early afternoon kickoff times, but I'm against it. Lincoln Financial Sports will televise the Dawgs vs. Colorado at 12:30 on Sept. 23rd. (Note: Lincoln Financial Sports Affiliates)
On the worst SEC TV week of the year, I thought we were a lock for a nationally televised game. Then Dan Hawkins went and promptly dropped a Jedi Turd all over the Buffalo program. As the Buffaloes stare down the barrel of 0-3, they have played themselves (and us) off national TV. As punishment for their poor play, their families (if they can find a sports bar that has the Lincoln Financial game on satellite) will have to wake up at the crack of dawn for this 10:30 am Mountain Time kickoff.
By the way, the ESPN night game that day is Kentucky vs. Florida at 7:45 pm. Does anyone really think that's going to be a good game? Obviously not.
Other SEC games of dis-interest that week include:
- Alabama at Arkansas - CBS
Buffalo at Auburn
Kentucky at Florida - ESPN
Colorado at Georgia - LP Financial
Tulane at LSU
Wake Forest at Ole Miss
Mississippi State at UAB
Florida Atlantic at South Carolina
Marshall at Tennessee - ESPN (unannounced time)
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt
pwd
15 comments:
This sucks!
Probably a ploy by UGA Administration to avoid any undue levels of actual enjoyment at an UGA game. I feel for you guys.
By the way, I got ten "public affairs" credits at Auburn for this post.
KI
I know you guys hate that 12:30 start, but with a 4 hour trip to and from the game I like them. Reminds me of the old days when we won the '80 MNC. Most all those games were 1:00 games and I could roll out of Milledge Hall for a late breakfast and a great game.
I does make it easier for those of us who have to return that night. But night games for the big games are great.
Sure, most of us would rather have a kickoff other than 12:30, but you went downhill, Buddy, when you blamed it on a UGA anti-late-game conspiracy. Seriously? Dude, the games are played when TV wants them played. Once in history has a school ever moved a game, and that was Dooley moving a kickoff by 2 hours ON THE SAME CHANNEL. You hit the nail on the head when you blamed it on an 0-3 CU. Don't digress and start whining 'secret ploy.' It kills your credibility on an otherwise enjoyable blog.
I think what makes it even more questionable is the fact that Marshall and Tennessee will be on ESPN. Even though CU sucks this year, a Colorado-UGA/Big12-SEC matchup would certainly generate more national interest than Marshall(a C-USA team that lost by 5 or 6 TD's to WVU) against the Pumpkins.
Anon:
It's a well known fact that the majority of UGA's games kick off at 1:00 or so, because the big money contributors in South Georgia like the early kick off so they can drive back home. Later kick offs was the one good thing I hoped might come from Dooley being fired, but apparently nothing good has come of that. Plus if you want proof of how a team can determine their kick off times just look at how many times LSU kicks off before dark thirty.
"I'm not sure when we joined the Big 10 and signed up for all these early afternoon kickoff times, but I'm against it."
I'm not sure about joining the Big 10 but we signed up for early afternoon kickoff times some time in the early 20th Century. I don't see how you can still have this big a problem with it. I'd wager it's been that way for at least double your lifespan.
12:30 is a bit earlier than I'd like but I don't understand the absolute hate being thrown around at early afternoon games. Personally, I like the early games. No, I don't drive far (30 minutes maybe). I just like the 8AM power tailgating and the after parties that start right when the late afternoon games are gearing up. I think 2PM would be an awesome kickoff time but I'll take 12:30PM over 7:30PM.
The only thing I see wrong with this situation is the 10:30 Mountain time kickoff but these are the same folks who gear up for 11AM NFL games so they should be used to it by now.
Just a little history about early kick offs: First, what has been said about folks who have to drive, go to game, and drive back in the same day is true, but I wouldn't limit it to South Georgia fans. If you came from anywhere that was more than a two hour drive, you had to be able to make a one day trip out of it because it's only within the last 25 years that Athens has had enough hotel rooms to offer. It's only within the last 40 years that interstate highways have been open, and the trips took longer. More than that, we've only had lights where fans could see games at night since 1982. (We did have some dawg-awful field lights and could play at night if we had to, but they were field level lights and obstructed the view so they really weren't a solution) So, for most of UGA's football tradiiton, there really wasn't any other choice, and tradition dies hard, fwiw.
I don't know what a "Jedi turd" is, but it sounds unpleasant. And hilarious. By the way, did you know that just one week after upsetting Colorado, Montana State went and got beat by a Division II team?
I think it's pretty ritahdid that ESPN picked UT-Marshall over us, but at the same time, living in the Central time zone, it can be kind of fun to sit on the couch in my jammies and eat my morning Cinnamon Toast Crunch whilst watching the 11:30 LFS game.
Early kickoffs kick ass. You can still get to the tailgate between 7-8am and have plenty of time to be trashed before the game. Then you can take a late afternoon nap, get back up and continue drinking. (I recommend taking a shot or two before the nap to prevent losing your buzz during the nap). It essentially turns Saturday into two days. Granted, I attend IU so actually going to the game does not factory into my Saturday plans but I still think it will work.
Couple of points:
1. UT vs. Marshall was picked up pre-season. It might not be a night game.
2. UGA has moved game times before. In the late 90s we got ESPN2 to move a game from 6:30 to 5:50 because that year we had promised the Athens cops that we wouldn't have more than 1 night game after 6:00 in a year.
3. As someone else said, asked UF shuffled the Southern Miss game around with TV. It does happen.
4. I didn't know I had any credibilit to begin with. lol.
As for the venom against a 12:30 kickoff. I'm a participant in a 30-40 person tailgate. It's really tough logistically for a tailgate as elaborate as ours to get cranked up to its fullest for an early game.
My ideal game start would be between 2:00 and 3:30. However, I do love night games as well. The 12:30 starts make pre-game tailgating extremely difficult.
Plus, the DawgWalk is around 11:00. To see the thing from a decent vantage point requires being there 10:45. If you're tearing down a tailgate to make the DawgWalk you never really even get started.
pwd
They must be having a difficult time keeping the inflatable play structures up n' running for more than a few hours.
I DIDN'T THINK THAT IS WAS POSSIBLE, BUT DAVE ROWE GONE FROM BAD TO WORSE THIS SEASON.
HE'S THE CRAPPIEST COLOR MAN EVER. I LISTENED TO THE WESTERN KENTUCKY GAME WITH THE SOUND DOWN (MUNSON WAS TWO SECONDS AHEAD OF THE TELEVISION).
1. HE KNOWS NOTHING (HE SAID THAT DEFENSIVE LINE WAS GEORGIA'S BIGGEST QUESTION MARK)
2. HE PUTS ON A JOLLY-NEXT-DOOR-NEIGHBOR FRONT THAT'S STRAIGHT OUT OF BROADCASTING 101 CLASS.
3. HE CALLS EVERYBODY BUDDY, PAL AND PARTNER LIKE SOME DRUNK GOLFING BUDDY YOU WISH YOU NEVER HAD.
I OBVIOUSLY FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I'M WRITING IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS. CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO START A CRUSADE TO GET RID OF DAVE ROWE?
I just checked and firedaverowe.com is available.
Check out firejoemorgan.com as a template. There are enough bloggers from the SEC that could contribute enough material that he might be gone for the 2007 season.
I'd rather start a crusade to get you to take the caps lock key off.
pwd
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