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There has been a lot of talk about the start times for the BG Home games, which got me to thinking, What the schedules for the other MAC schools looked like. I used military time to keep it consistent. (Also put NIU in central time to show relevance to other schools)
Couple of take aways:
1. BG does have the earliest start times
2. It sucks to be an EMU fan
3. WMU knew they had a great product and showcased it
4. Only ONE home Saturday game the entire month of November
5. I didn't include other games played on any other day. Many schools did a Friday night early in the season and clearly we all played some week day games.

Thought?

This is good, and an interesting way to look at it, and it's nice to see something different.

I think you need to add a standard deviation. That would show how much the start times vary. For example, although NIU has a later start time than us, it's the same for all their games.

Having a consistent start time on Saturday is important for planning gameday activities like tailgating.

Nice work on compiling that information. Good stuff. It would be nice to know if there's a correlation between attendance numbers and start times? I'm talking actual butts in seats. It would be hard to make a conclusive determination on that, since we all know that actual attendance rarely resembles the announced figures.

So, if i read this correctly , BG played HALF of the noon start games? As someone who has to drive 2+ hrs to campus, this is Stupid! And i don't care if it's TV driven or not. As a result of the worst home schedule in yrs., we did less tailgating than whenever! ( Not that TV folks care about fans in seats or tailgating.)

It would be interesting to hear the AD address how they pick times for Saturday games, whether it's tv related, avoiding other events, league requested. There has to be a rhyme or reason to starting at noon that frequently. Because like many of you I hate it! My tailgating rule of thumb is that I need 6 hours of tailgating and starting at 6 am is rough. Noon games have to cut into attendance both from a lack of alumni coming to town and the college kids sleeping.

Add to that, anybody know the last Saturday November home game we've had? 2012 vs Kent State. 4 freaking years without a home game in November. The best way to drive away your fan base is to make it difficult to attend games.

Class of 61 wrote:So, if i read this correctly , BG played HALF of the noon start games? As someone who has to drive 2+ hrs to campus, this is Stupid! And i don't care if it's TV driven or not. As a result of the worst home schedule in yrs., we did less tailgating than whenever! ( Not that TV folks care about fans in seats or tailgating.)

68% of Big 10 games started this year at noon.
72% of Big 12 games started at 11am CT

I'm sure many of those fans live 2 hours away. I don't mind noon start times. Just start every home game the same time and stick too it!!!

WMU played on Saturday, November 19th at home as well.

Remember, College Gameday from Kalamazoo?

Added the Nov 19th game Western had at home to the table: