Alabama Football kickoff times continue to disappoint fans

As kickoff times are released each week, Alabama Football continues to get the short end of the stick when it comes to night games. 

News broke this week that the Alabama Football versus Southern Miss matchup next weekend would be another noon kickoff for the Tide, and fans are not happy. Each year, it seems all of the Tide’s early season matchups are either noon or mid-afternoon games, and the September Central Alabama heat does not mess around.

Fans are tired of suffering through the hottest games of the season at the earliest times. It’s hard to complain about half-empty stands when the heat index is over 100 degrees and half the stadium is in the full sun. It makes for a miserable experience. Now the question is why Alabama Football continues to play afternoon games while other SEC teams enjoy night games regardless of their opponent.

Cecil Hurt has stayed on top of the discussion via Twitter. He pointed out that since 2014, out of 12 non-conference September matchups, the Tide has enjoyed one night game in Bryant Denny. In the same span, all twelve of LSU’s non-conference September matchups were night games in Death Valley. The blame is being put on TV schedules for Alabama’s schedule, but clearly LSU continues to get their way despite that.

Fans, media, players, coaches, and students are chiming in across social media. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne released the following statement and promised water and sunscreen stations to beat the heat.

Tim Brando alleged that Alabama Football shouldn’t complain about the TV schedule because the opponents chosen are too weak… a “schedule built for Titles”. This comment is ironic enough in and of itself because Clemson actually had the weakest schedule last year going into the 2018 College Football Playoff.

Head coach Nick Saban already addressed the scheduling dilemma in recent interviews. No one wants to play Alabama- except Troy apparently.

https://twitter.com/TroyTrojansFB/status/1171807729427603457

But for reference, the non-conference opponents Alabama has scheduled since Saban’s arrival have been decent. Every team has their share of cupcake games, but Alabama has played FSU, Clemson, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Michigan, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and USC in the regular season. The upcoming home-and-home series include many big-name teams like Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, and WVU as well.

Even the coach from that cow college on the other side of the state added his two cents to the situation claiming he would rather his 6 pm Kent State kick be at 12 pm to have more time to prepare for their next opponent.

This coming from the man that wanted Auburn’s schedule changed to not have to play both Georgia and Alabama away in the same year in November. Even if they played every game at noon and used the extra time every week to prepare for their next opponent, they still wouldn’t make an appearance in the CFP.

Cecil Hurt took a jab at Auburn as well claiming he strongly agreed with Malzahn wanting every game to kick at noon since Auburn would certainly need the extra time to prepare.

https://twitter.com/ClintRLamb/status/1171512193172426752

With all these afternoon kickoffs, Bryant Denny won’t get to showcase the new LED choreographed lights. The night game atmosphere at Bryant Denny is unparalleled. It will only be more exciting when the entire stadium goes crimson when Tua throws a bomb to the end zone.  Perhaps Georgia is in better graces with the scheduling office and might be able to use our idea first.

https://twitter.com/AlabamaFTBL/status/1162368351211008008

The drama continues to unfold daily, but it looks like at least for the foreseeable future, TV scheduling will trump Alabama football’s administration in the scheduling of games.

Fans will continue to be treated for heat-related illnesses at games, and the stands will still be empty by the second half. I guess that is part of the price of victory when you keep beating teams by 50+ points.