Lawless Republic
Fansided

BYU Football: Why BYU and the AAC make sense

By Adam Gibby

CINCINNATI, OHIO - DECEMBER 19: The American Athletic Conference logo on the field after the game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at Nippert Stadium on December 19, 2020 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
CINCINNATI, OHIO - DECEMBER 19: The American Athletic Conference logo on the field after the game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at Nippert Stadium on December 19, 2020 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
(Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) /

Location

Alright let’s be honest, this is a no brainer and doesn’t need much explaining. The more spread out a conference is, the more TV spots they can fill up. You will never see the PAC 12 play at 12:00 AM ET because that is 9:00 AM on the west coast. On the flip side, you will never see a 10:00 ET kickoff on the east coast because that is just too late. Having a conference that enters two or even three time zones benefits the conference because it gives TV markets more options.

How this benefits the AAC

BYU is well known for taking up the ESPN 10:00ET kickoff in football or tipoff in basketball. While fans may not necessarily love watching a game that goes into Sunday morning.  Ask yourself, would you rather watch your team play late, or not see them at all/see them on ESPN 7? Yeah, that is what I thought. Since the AAC is primarily in the eastern time zone and BYU is in the mountain time zone, you could realistically have nonstop AAC games on TV from 12:00 ET when the first games of the day begin until 2:00 AM ET when the final whistle blows for the weekend. Yes, I said that right, you could turn your TV on at any moment during the day and find an AAC game on.

How this benefits BYU

I think this helps in two ways. The first is that ESPN would likely still keep BYU games going on Saturday nights because honestly what other game are they going to play? That means that things won’t really change for BYU as far as home games go. The second thing is that the away games won’t be so late. Nobody loves late kickoffs, but they are worse when they are four or five weeks in a row. That is what happens when BYU plays something like the following:

  • Utah vs BYU (10:00 ET)
  • BYU vs Boise St (10:00 ET)
  • Arizona vs BYU (10:00 ET)
  • BYU vs Utah St (10:00 ET)

Getting to the east coast would mean that unless BYU plays three straight home games, they will have at least one, if not two earlier games to watch.

Home/BYU Football