For those of you that keep asking what I know about the kickoff time - here it is:
A friend of mine works at the CW here in Memphis and filled me in on a little bit of this. Lincoln Financial was supposed to announce today who they were broadcasting. They thought they could force either Alabama or Florida into playing the 11:30am kickoff on the first Saturday of September.
That didn't quite work out to their liking. You won't find two more stubborn athletic directors in the country as Mal Moore and Jeremy Foley, and both of them are refusing to play so early in the first game of the season. PPV games, especially home games against non-conference opponents, are incredibly profitable to Universities, so if they have the opportunity to do a late kickoff, boost tourism dollars on campus, and still make fat TV cash, they'll do that every time.
Again, both Moore and Foley have refused to play the early game. The Kentucky / Eastern Kentucky matchup has been brought in as a possible replacement. The delay in the announcement, which will now be on Wednesday, August 15th, is due to the fact that Lincoln Financial is attempting to convince SEC officials to force Alabama into the game, due to their television contract with the SEC. Lincoln Financial is supposed to get their pick of which game they want on whatever weekend they want, after CBS and ESPN, but since Alabama and Florida aren't adhering to that, they're a little bit pissed.
Of course, the contract also reads that they get their pick of an "SEC game" which is a very general term. Alabama and Florida's legal councils are reading this as a game between two SEC teams, so they can't be forced into an early kickoff because of that.
You can bet that, unless LF Sports is incredibly stupid, they'll have the generalized terms made more specific the next time the contract is up, which, if I'm not mistaken, is in 2009. Unless Mike Slive whips Mal Moore in a fist fight, look for Alabama to kickoff at 6pm and Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky to kickoff at 11:30am on Lincoln Financial.
¶ 3:39 PM
Comments:
I know your not getting many comments these days since shulagate... but I visit your blog consistently to catch up. I was at fan day and very impressed with the intensity and organization of the practice as well as the condition of our players. Thanks for the info!!! Keep it up, I'll be reading... hell, you seem to have more going on the Finebaum!!! ROLL TIDE!!!!!! # posted by BamaRod : 12:27 AM
Post a Comment
For those of you that keep asking what I know about the kickoff time - here it is:
