Between the heat, early wake-up times and lack of time to tailgate, Joe Stubits said he hates when the Gators kick off at noon.
Noon games cause tailgaters to start earlier, require workers to arrive at the stadium sooner and force fans to attend the games during the hottest part of the day.
Stubits, a 20-year-old UF industrial and systems engineering junior, said he is less likely to attend a game at noon than a later game.
Daniel Apple, assistant communications director of the UF Athletic Association, said the games’ kickoff times are set by CBS and ESPN, who hold exclusive rights to Southeastern Conference games.
CBS holds exclusive rights to 3:30 p.m. kickoffs for the SEC Game of the Week. CBS also holds an exclusive window from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., where no other network can broadcast an SEC game. The attendance numbers listed on gatorzone.com show no correlation between attendance and kickoff times.
ESPN gets the night kickoffs for SEC games after CBS gets their choice of the game of the week. ESPN also gives an option to schools for a pay-per-view game of their choice.
There have already been three noon games this season. With Saturday’s pay-per-view game against Jacksonville State set for 1 p.m., the UF football team will not have a night game this season.
And that doesn’t bother Desheba Rutledge.
Rutledge, a concession stand worker at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, said she prefers noon games because she gets to go home earlier.
She said she believes more students than normal ask for free cups of ice during noon games.
Ice or no ice, Stubits is not pleased.
“I was very angry when I looked at the times and was like, ‘Wow, 12:30, awesome!’” he said. “This sucks. I’m going to die of heat.”
Stubits said he likes sleeping in, especially on Saturdays, but noon games don’t allow for that.
“I just kinda go, ‘Oh crap,’ throw some clothes on, brush my teeth and run over to the game,” he said. “Preparation is very lacking.”
