BYU Football: Game time and TV set for UMass game
By Shaun Gordon
The time and TV schedule has been set for BYU Football’s game at UMass. The Cougars will face an early morning test in an NFL stadium.
BYU Football now knows the kickoff time for six of their twelve regular season games in 2018.
On Tuesday, UMass announced the game times and broadcast providers for their home schedule. The Minutemen’s game with the Cougars will kick off at 10:00am and will be shown on NESN and Eleven Sports.
All six of UMass’ home games will be broadcast by those two entities. The other five home games will be played at McGuirk Stadium, while the game with BYU is at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots.
It’s by far the earliest kickoff so far for the Cougars this season, and there there’s very little chance that any others will be that early. It will be a challenge for BYU, having to travel two time zones and play a morning game. The Cougars have historically struggled in those situations, losing four of the last five eastern road games that kicked off before noon. That includes a 35-10 drubbing by Mississippi State last season.
So far, six BYU games have times set. The season opener at Arizona will kick off at 8:45pm MT (ESPN), followed by the home opener against Cal at 8:15pm MT (ESPN2 or ESPNU). The Cougars’ trip to Camp Randall Stadium to take on Wisconsin is at 1:30pm MT (ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2), and BYU’s game against FCS foe McNeese State is at 4:00pm MT (BYUtv).
The fifth game at Washington doesn’t have a confirmed time yet, but the conference weekend game against Utah State already has a 7:00pm MT kick (ESPN2).
The game times against Hawaii, Northern Illinois, Boise State, New Mexico State, and Utah are all still to be determined as well.
For BYU, the game at UMass will be important for bowl eligibility. Plus, the Cougars will be looking for revenge after an embarrassing 16-10 home loss to the Minutemen last season.