Colorado head coach Deion Sanders didn’t mince words when he spoke about the late kickoff time for the Buffaloes game tonight against Stanford.
The Pac-12 matchup is scheduled to kick off at 8pm local time, which is 10pm EST – and that doesn’t sit well with Coach Prime at all.
During his weekly Coaches Show, Sanders expressed his frustration with the late start time, saying: “Thank God we’re soon leaving the Pac-12 Conference and its many later game times in the West.”
“Who wants to stay up till 8 o’clock for a dern game? … It’s the dumbest thing ever, the stupidest thing ever invented in life,” he said.
Prime didn’t stop there, questioning how many viewers on the East Coast would stay up to watch the late-night (for them) game: “They even care about ratings or anybody watching it?”
Deion Sanders rips Pac-12 late kickoff times: ‘It’s the dumbest thing ever’, while getting input from the Aflac duck
“Thank god we’re not gonna be in this conference (Pac-12)”https://t.co/0vM1aheQMA
— OutKick (@Outkick) October 12, 2023
It’s worth noting that ESPN previously hit the jackpot with a late game involving Colorado on September 16th.
In that dramatic matchup against Colorado State, which went into double overtime, the game drew a whopping 9.3 million viewers despite ending after 2am on the East Coast.
It marked the most-watched late game ever on ESPN.
Sanders typically has his team stay in a hotel before the game, a practice common among many college football teams … He alluded to the annoyance of having to wait around all day to play.
He emphasized that he’s looking forward to Colorado’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 next year, where the team will play more games against conference rivals in the Central and Eastern time zones, hopefully resulting in fewer late-night kickoffs.
Coach Prime not happy to be playing in Prime Time (local) Friday night.
Who wants to tell him there will almost certainly be 10 pm ET games in the Big 12?https://t.co/vXJPUFt45Qhttps://t.co/vXJPUFt45Q
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) October 11, 2023
Now, I think it goes without saying that Sanders is being a little too dramatic here.
Of course, the kickoff time is to accommodate the national television audience (as well as the local fans who much rather have a Friday night game kick off at 8pm local rather than 6pm).
Plus, you should be able to have your team play no matter what time the game is – 6am, noon, 6pm or 10pm – It shouldn’t matter one bit.
On that note, something tells me Sanders will have his guys ready.
What do you think of his complaints???