Todd Ladner was excited about the last home football game of the season — until he found out it was at 2:30 p.m.”It ruins tailgating because the best games — Georgia and Alabama and now Ole Miss — are in the afternoon,” the kinesiology junior said. “Those are the ones you want to be out there for a long time, but you can’t.”Saturday’s matchup against Ole Miss will be LSU’s third this season to kick off at 2:30 p.m. on CBS. The Tigers have had 15 regular season afternoon kickoffs on the network since Les Miles became coach in 2005.LSU fans have become accustomed to “Saturday Night in Death Valley” over the years, but Tim Amorello, construction management junior, said the atmosphere of night games isn’t present in day games.”How can you have Saturday night in Tiger Stadium when it is Saturday afternoon?” he asked.Chris Lomongo, general studies senior, said he believes the Tigers have an advantage at night because the stadium provides a level of intensity that is hard to match.”It sucks for us because we do better at night,” he said. This year, the team has played their highest-ranked opponents at 2:30 p.m., losing 52-38 to then No. 10 Georgia and then 27-21 to No. 1 Alabama.But LSU officials sometimes have very little to do with kickoff times. The real power lies with LSU’s contract with CBS through the SEC. Michael Bonnette, sports information director, told The Daily Reveille in October that LSU tries to schedule games for a traditional 7 p.m. kickoff, but if CBS chooses to pick up the game, they have to meet contractual demands.Lomongo said he doesn’t blame anybody at LSU for the early game times.”I know CBS gets first pick of the SEC games for most of the weeks of the season, so it’s really not up to us or anything,” he said. “But I like night games, and I think everybody else does, too.”Ladner blames the network for making the time of the game so early, calling CBS “terrible.”But senior linebacker Darry Beckwith said the team is used to playing games broadcast on CBS.”Since I’ve been here, we have played a lot of games on CBS — since my freshman year — so it’s really not different for us,” he said.Senior fullback Quinn Johnson agreed, saying the team is ready to go no matter what time the game takes place.”Honestly, I really don’t pay attention to when we play the games or anything like that,” he said. “Whenever it’s time to go, they just put us on the bus and ship us over there.”Some fans and players have even come to enjoy the early games as a welcome change from the regularity of night games.Junior running back Charles Scott said he enjoys starting games earlier in the day because there isn’t a lot of waiting around.”It doesn’t matter what time the game is,” he said. “Actually, I think the early games are better because we can just get up and go play.”Others like the afternoon games because they end earlier.”I like them because you don’t get out so late,” said Kevin Darr, political science senior. “It’s not 11 p.m. when you leave the game.”Junior tight end Richard Dickson said getting out of games earlier benefits him.”I usually just go pass out in bed after [night games],” he said. “But I guess afternoon games let me see my family after since they all come in town.”Matthew Cusinmano, undecided freshman, said he thinks if the team continues to do well, future seasons could have just as many early kickoff times.”If we keep doing better, CBS will keep picking up the games, and we will have more early games,” he said.—-Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]
Fans prefer night game atmosphere over early kickoff
By Ellen Zielinski
Contributing Writer
Contributing Writer
November 19, 2008