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A college football Saturday usually has games kicking off every hour and half-hour (or more often), because there are so many games that they can’t all start at 1, 4, or 8 Eastern, like in the NFL. But more games than not fit into a few established buckets of time.
A few decades of a mostly standard college TV schedule has allowed us to get a good sense of what games should look like at different times of the day and week.
Each slot has its own personality and demands. Would it be nice to have a game as big as Ohio State-Michigan happening at all hours? It sounds nice at first, but the college football week demands rhythm and pace, just like anything else.
Tuesday night
A MAC game with tons of offense. This is a good time to watch Western Michigan and Toledohang nine touchdowns on each other during Bachelor commercials.
Wednesday night
To bring balance to the universe, a MAC game with a combined 24 points. It’s always fun when Ball State and Miami (Ohio) get together on a weeknight in Oxford.
Thursday night
Maybe you get stuck with a bad ACC game. But maybe you get to watch a really good Group of 5 team that seems like it’s on your TV every week. Give us a nice USF vs. SMU.
Friday night
Cal vs. the Vegas points total.
12 p.m. ET on Saturday
Games in this slot aren’t supposed to be too involved. You’re either still drinking or still hungover. The ideal game features strong play on only one side of the ball per team.
Let me have a relaxing, 17-7 Northwestern vs. Wisconsin, please, though there’s also something to letting Texas Tech and West Virginia work you into the day by jogging up and down the field past each other.
2 p.m. ET
Every Duke game kicks off at this time. Don’t check the schedule. It just does. Maybe you get lucky and it happens to be playing a barnburner against Georgia Tech.
3:30 p.m. ET
This is a slot for games with gravitas and games that just look like autumn. It ends when it’s getting dark, so the fourth quarter has a prime-time feel. It’s not too late for people to jump over some hedges and throw a bunch of toilet paper on trees afterward and party into the night, because the night’s only just begun. Nobody’s storming a field after a nooner, but here, you can. Let’s have an Auburn vs. Georgia.
5:30 p.m. ET
The time when you look up and realize every Conference USA game is kicking off exactly right now, and you can do nothing but wonder why.
But you realize that some little school has a really good QB you haven’t heard of at all during his three-year run as the starter. You’re hooked. You’re watching Old Dominion vs. Middle Tennessee.
8 p.m. ET
A real throw-down showdown between top-five teams goes here. This is the game that every incoming freshman dreams of getting to attend once. Maybe College GameDay was outside that morning, and all the undergrads have woken back up by kickoff. Here’s a good spot for a Florida State vs. Clemson or a Penn State vs. Michigan kind of deal.
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10:30 p.m. ET
Time for a game with nine turnovers, at least 84 combined points, two officials pointing in opposite directions to indicate possession, the lights going out at the stadium, and a team accidentally going to the locker room before halftime and needing to be called back out to line up for an extra point in a stadium that’s 30 percent full. Yes, this is the time for Arizona State vs. whoever.
Anything later, but before midnight
Something involving Boise State, BYU, or both. You can’t believe how passionate the crowd is, because even though it’s not that late there, it looks cold as hell.
12 a.m. ET on Sunday
Hawaii welcomes whoever as those of us who’ve been logged on for 12 hours already prepare for four more.
12 p.m. on Sunday
A team from the South plays a rescheduled hurricane game against a bad opponent, and no one cares enough to get worked up that it’s during an NFL slate. Maybe one side is ECU, FIU, South Alabama, or Florida. The opponent must be UConn.
source:-sbnation.
