What will it take to play top opponents at night?

Other than somehow becoming SEC doormats or playing where there just happens to be a bigger matchup than something like LSU vs UF, Aub, Bama, Vtech (which isn't going to happen), how can the system be changed to where we can play at night again?

Would it be a matter of CBS either adding a prime-time football slot in addition to the current day-time slot, or simply moving their only game to the evening? What the hell do they broadcast on Saturday nights that's better than football? If this is the problem I really wish the SEC would try to sway them to add a night game. Furthermore, it would be nice, under this theoretical scenario, that when LSU were selected to be on CBS they could somehow opt for the night slot (in other words, even if it were the "top" game of the week if it were at home we could opt for the night slot).

I really miss not facing our toughest opponents at night. I just feel like the atmosphere is more conducive to our team than others, for whatever reason, be it crowd noise or just the general "electricity" in the air. I also feel we're getting away from one of our notable traditions. Don't get me wrong, I love being top dog and winning lots, but it's annoying to play so many day games now.

I'm ranting on this b/c I just read another thread speculating about our TV schedule. Anyone have any insight into whether anything will change or when?

 

We could leave the SEC and get our own TV contract like ND.

Other than that, daytime football is here to stay as long as we are winning. It's hard to imagine CBS Saturday evening shows are more attractive than college football, but apparantly the network execs believe it is. I don't know how successful ABC's primetime games were last year, but I hope it was a ratings success. That will only encourage CBS to do the same. That may keep a big home game or two at night.

 

i agree 100%. i was talking with my tailgating buddies before the spring game that with so many marquee matchups at home we'll see a lot of 2:30 games.

i wonder why cbs hasn't gone with a night slot to compete with ABC/ESPN? they do it for fla/tenn it seems.

you're not playing a game in death valley unless its at night, all others are played in Tiger Stadium.

my roomate (back in college) and I had an argument that LSU played better at night. he didn't believe it. we didn't really argue stats because LSU winning % is so much better at night but b/c of cupcake games usually getting a 7:00 slot and bigger, more difficult opponents getting a daytime kickoff didn't make that comparison fair. so i just go by gut feeling and atmosphere.

my final point was that when spurrier was at UF, he did everything in his power to play LSU during the day in BR. that's gotta say something.

i think the sec has a great contract with CBS but i think they could get a larger audience from SEC football at night then JAG or NCIS or whatever the hell comes on saturday nights.

 

Unfortunately, I do not believe this is as high a priority to the decision makers as it should be. There was even an article last year that Miles likes the 2:30 games. As long as attendance is up, and TV money is rolling in, there is no pressure to push CBS to add a night slot or to shop for a new network. On top of that, TV contracts are negotiated at the conference level and the rest of the SEC couldn't care less whether LSU gets to play at night.

 

But wouldn't you estimate that it would be both beneficial to LSU, the SEC, AND CBS to either add another college game for primetime (hopefully keeping the ESPN contract in place just moving everything "up" so to speak) or at least move the 2:30 thing to a prime-time hour. I'm no TV guru, but I can't imagine Saturday evening prime-time being much of a slot where networks like to showcase their top series or anything big. Really, what the hell is the programming at that hour? The world isn't just sitting on their couches every saturday night waiting for CSI or Friends re-runs. People are out at dinner (places with TVs), out at bars (places with TVs), throwing parties at their homes, and even tailgating or going to the actual game. I just can't fathom that there is anything better for a saturday night TV slot than a big-time college football game (guess CBS thinks otherwise).

After I pull a jedi mind trick on the CBS execs to go forward with this plan I'm going to work on getting them to raise a bunch of capital to launch a 24hour sports programming network with the mission of genuinely competing with ESPN in terms of viewership, production quality, and superior content. There will be a CBS "GameDay" like program without whiny losers like Herby, and they're going to spend the majority of their weekends in the SEC. Well there you have it.

 

I think you just answered your own question. Saturday nights are not a big TV ratings night. What viewers they have are probably older people and/or shut-ins with no life ... neither are probably huge college football fans.

I'd say there are more college football viewers during the day. Plus, the majority of schools play during the day, whether it's on TV or not. Networks can probably charge more for advertisments for day games.

All I know is this ... any network would show college football at midnight if they can make more money doing it.

 

Thank you Pac 10 on TBS. :lol:

We actually only had one home game during the day last year: Miss State. The rest were at night, either on ESPN or not at all. Now, with CBS taking ALL of our away games last year, I'm sure it's apparent now what the trend will be this year with the home schedule we have this year compared to last.

Sigh, get your sunscreen out.

 

Get ESPN to cover all home games

 

what i was trying to say is people will be watching the games at night even while they're out. We've been doing it for years. I would think advertisers would want to hit that crowd up, more so than old people at home.

 

just increase ticket prices by 10X so $$$ no longer matters.

or just vote in another democrat governor and have them tax the people of La more to subsidize LSU football.