Season opener and Akron game time & network set
Season opener against central will be, yet another, 3:30pm start.
Akron on 9/14 will be at Noon (yay).
Both will be on BTN. First time in quite awhile Michigan's season opener hasn't been on ABC despite the opponent. I rather not mention the last time it wasn't.
http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/061213aab.html
I have a fucking WEDDING to attend that day. I am so sick of these morons who choose to get married on a football Saturday; they should know better.
Either way, I'm not going to the reception until the game concludes...the wife knows this.
I just don't understand it. It's not difficult to schedule a wedding in the spring or summer. If you have to do it during football season, have it on a Friday night instead. I have an October wedding to attend, but it's on a Friday night, which I am obviously OK with. I am the best man in a wedding that will occur in October of 2014, but again, it's a Friday night because the groom gets it (for a Buckeye fan I guess).
Fuck BTN and the BTN money.
Maryland and Rutgers would pistol whip you for saying that.
I like to get my Michigan victory in by 3-3:30 so I have time to root against the SEC in the afternoon and evening
I don't get BTN, and I'm not willing to pay for it.
So ... either live-stream off the internet or use BTN as the excuse to climb on the motorcycle and tune in Sirius sports and listen to the game. Things could be worse than cruising down some Arizona backroad while listening to Meeechigan football.
I live in Dallas and for whatever reason, ATT Uverse carries it at no extra cost. I love it. You should look into that in AZ
If you're watching the game live, the noon start gives you a realistic chance of getting home and catching a good bit the late games. The 3:30 start time pretty much shoots the entire day in the ass.
I missed the noon games because I was typically out of the house by 2-2:30 to watch the band and then you're not home till 6-7 at which point you have to get dinner and possibly miss the start of the late games.
I hate it now almost as much, possibly more, because now if I go to a Michigan bar in the city to watch the game, it kills that timing even more. Out of the house by like 1:30 or 2 and not home till 7-8
Noon FTW
I miss the days when games were always at 1:30 and there was still daylight when it was over. Here is a google images link with a few tickets from various years with 1:30 and 2:00 starting times.
Having breakfast on campus, walking around campus, seeing the drum line in the morning, grabbing a quart of cider, and maybe a brat or two, getting to the game at 11 or so, makes for a nice day. You can stop by Zingerman's or someplace else for an early supper, hit the road by 6pm, and be back to Chicago by 10pm.
Not being a heavy drinker, or party goer, or wanting to spend a ton for a hotel room, not even near campus, or having season tickets or student tickets to afford ND, means that the benefits of late games are just lost on me. I suppose if I wanted to get wasted and laid late Friday, not getting to bed til 4am, get up at noon to start slamming beers, and chugging from a keg, and wanting to stay up Saturday to party all over again, getting wasted and laid, then I could see your point of view.
EDIT: If I'm watching on TV, then 3:30pm games or night games are just fine. But I'd like to have a choice of 2 - 3 games a year in Sept - Oct that have noon starts.
arent' so bad, and while both words are strong on their own, they're really great together.
Just one guy's opinion.
And I'm just poking fun at you.
I'm on the other side of this. When I moved to the central time zone I was as excited about getting to watch college games at 11 and NFL games at noon as I was about anything else. When you get up at 5:30am during the week, it's kind of hard to sleep in beyond 7 or 8 am on Saturdays, regardless of how much I drink on Friday. By the time I eat and do other extracurriculars I'm ready for beer and football ASAP
And even if I were still going to games in person, it wouldn't be as bad--the 3:30 slot is still tough to miss, but more and more of the biggest games are in primetime, so you can still see them.
I think living in Central time is fantastic for prime time sporting events. I used to hate the 9:30 p.m. start time for championship-level games while living in Eastern zones.
I do hate 11 a.m. CFB kickoffs, though. It's just too early to get my juices flowing. I can't imagine living in Pacific land and waking up to football at 9 a.m.
My solution for the past few years to 11 a.m. kickoffs is to set the DVR. I go about my business until noonish, make myself some nachos, open a beer, then start watching. I fast forward through the RoTel commercials and the BTN Gerry DiNardo halftime show, then pick up the game live somewhere in the early 2nd half. I will admit that it didn't initially feel right to ignore a Michigan game that was playing live, but I quickly got over it when I discovered the benefits of less commercial interruptions and no BTN halftime show. This DVR rule does not apply to "big" games, though. I generally only use it for BTN games. An 11 a.m. OSU live kickoff will not be missed.
saying that most future games are going to be at 3:30 aside from a few late season games that will start at Noon (including The Game).
3:30 should be the default expectation going forward.
[citation needed]
I'm shocked that I missed that; I hope you can remember where that record may be found.
This was front paged about a week ago (LINK: http://mgoblog.com/diaries/things-learned-tonights-michigan-midwest-coachs-tour.)
For selfish reasons, I like a choice of two or three 12noon starts in Sept. - Oct. (My son is playing youth football, and most of his games are on Saturdays. He typically has a bye week, which allows me to get to a game that week.)
Anyway, Brandon told me directly that we weren't going to see hardly any Michigan noon starts, because of TV. TV wants as many eyeballs watching as possible, because that determines advertising revenue. Let's face it, Michigan vs. almost anyone is going to have a higher viewership than, say, Indiana - Minnesota, or Northwestern - Purdue, or Illinois - Iowa. And Michigan isn't going to have late starts for late Nov. games (Iowa and Ohio this year.) For that reason, according to Brandon, you can count on late starts for Michigan for virtually all of the first 9 - 10 games of the season.
The only reason Akron is a noon start is that is a tomato can of a game, and there must be some better choices out there for late starts.
Very informative; thanks. I know it's TV and not the University picking the game times; that's why I figured there would still be a number of noon starts mixed in with the 3:30s.
I guess I can see what he is saying, but isn't noon still the #2 or (at worst) #3 time slot for Big Ten games? There's sometimes a night game (8:00), ABC gets the #2 pick (3:30), and then ESPN shows the #3 game at noon. It's not like every Michigan game will end up on ABC at 3:30. I'm troubled by the BTN 3:30 starts for that reason--that seems like the #5 or #6 best time slot--even the noon BTN games will get more exposure (because they are not at 3:30 opposite a top game of the week).
You're not thinking quite right. Regardless of ABC, ESPN, or BTN, they ALL will get better ad revenues at 3:30pm. There theoretically is the capacity for ABC, ESPN, BTN to each show a 12noon and 3:30pm B10 game, with ABC or ESPN showing a single night game in addition. (14 teams, minimum of 7 games if all are B10 games, up to 14 games if all are non-conference.)
Regardless of the network, they all want a 3:30pm (or 5pm, or 7pm, or 8pm) start. This isn't rocket science.
The only games relegated to 12noon are those which are decidedly "meh." 12noon doesn't matter for Ohio: Ad revenues are still there for that one game.
I must say, in terms of TV interest, Brandon was brilliant in re-scheduling "the Horror." Both in terms of Michigan fans, and State and Ohio fans hoping for a reprise of the Horror, plus all the marginal fans out there who always root for the underdog, I don't think you could schedule a game that will get that many people watching. They might not STAY watching, but they'll certainly tune in for the game. Brian is right in terms of what Michigan loses (they are the bully if they beat up Appy State; they gain very little in the polls with a win; they risk the possibility of actually losing to Appy State.) But even so, the ad revenues for that game trump what Michigan loses.
I'm not sure that's actually how the TV contract works: I think there are certain time slots that ESPN has reserved for B1G games, and there is a certain order in which ABC/ESPN and BTN select the games for broadcast, and there is an agreement between the two entities to avoid competition in certain cases. I can't find the details, though, so hopefully somebody else can.
As far as the upcoming football game against Appalachian State University is concerned, I don't really care that the conference gets more revenue from that game; Michigan only gets 6.7 percent of that revenue--the same share that Ohio State, Michigan State or Rutgers get.
We get it, man. You talked to Dave Brandon about stuff.
Wouldn't it be great if the games all had staggard start times? They could start at noon and kickoff every 10-15 minutes throughout the day going east to west. You would never need to watch commercials or stupid half time shows.
Our TV overlords have spoken. 3:30 PM is the new Noon.
there are only 110,000 in the stadium and millions using televisions...
more my part I liked the noon games much better before I had children. As a father I've found a lot happens from 9 to 12 on a saturday morning...
jdon
are perfect if you want the student section more populated at kickoff. If for some reason it's still half empty, then that's the fault of the ticket taking system.
Personally, I'd rather see more students in the stands after having a satisfactory non-rushed 7 AM tailgate than all of the alums having the ability to get back to the burbs and watch that enthralling Nebraska - Iowa bloodbath.
There are now too many entitled students who really don't give a rip about the games. Having season tickets isn't anything they're paying for: it all is covered by mommy and daddy. For kids in that economic stratosphere, season tickets are like having a beach house in Saugatauk or Grand Haven: you might hardly ever go, but you have the option to go if you want to go. So, you show up fashionably late, and leave fashionably early. You've put in your appearance, but that's about it.
Chalk that up to the crappy ticket taking system / games not being frequent enough for students to realize that they need to actually leave 45 minutes early to get to their seats on time. Nobody said they had much common sense. Question: Back in the 80s / 90s, did those exterior gates exist, causing that god awful bottle neck on the northeast corner? Or did they take the tickets at the section entrances?
That's 3 BTN games. Holy Hell. I may be wrong but I think that 3 is the most ever. I got BTN 3 or 4 years ago when it was just one game. Even casual fans will start thinking about buying BTN. I justified it for just one game at ($6.00/mo x 12) $72 was worth it. Now its just $24 per game.
Camera Quality crap? I swear the HD channel looks like regular and the can't get good shots half of the time.
You just made my day. Nothing beats a 9 hour long tailgate to open the season on a usually sunny and warm day. Can't wait for Aug 31. Traffic always seems a bit more congested for noon games as many people arrive at the same time. Having more time tio get to your parking area creates less congestion IMHO. Certainly the lines aren't as long for the lots at their respective opening times.
Do you tailgate in the blue lot?
3:30 games in early September are absolute torture if you're in the stadium. Hottest part of the day, usually intense sun...
I know it's heretical, but I'll take a noon start every week until the fall weather kicks in.
The West sideline is pretty mild most of the day, regardless of kick time, but the East sideline bakes in the sun for the entirety of a noon game. Conversely, at 3:30 games, the West side is totally shaded and the East sideline gets relief by the 3rd quarter. I agree that the glare can be worse for a 3:30 kick due to the angle of the sun for the east sideline, but overall, noon games bathe more of the stadium in direct sunshine for a longer duration of the game than 3:30 starts. The solution... ALL NIGHT GAMES!
I don't mind noon kickoff times. Well, I hated them when I was a student, but not so much anymore. Now I can just roll out of bed at 11:45 and turn on the TV. But if I'm watching a football game on the BTN, I feel like it should be a Purdue vs. Southern-Central Indiana State University kind of game. You know, a game no one on this planet cares about. I'm trying to remember the last time Michigan didn't have a season opener on ABC or ESPN.
Sucks, but oh well. We'll undoubtedly have plenty as the season goes along. Notre Dame obviously on NBC, Penn State, Minnesota, MSU probably, Nebraska, OSU, and maybe Northwestern depending on how their season unfolds. And who knows, maybe Iowa, too. Michigan will have plenty of time to soak up the national airwaves. After all, this is Michigan, fergodsakes.
because it's in A2.
just got the time warner cable box so i GOOD,can't wait.GO BLUE!!!