Deion Sanders blasts broadcasters for late Pac-12 kicks
Sanders expressed his displeasure with his teams’ late start times Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders once again challenged ESPN’s late start times for his team.
Frankly, he called the 8:00 PM PT start of the upcoming game against Stanford “the dumbest thing ever” and “the dumbest thing ever invented.” Sanders expressed his concern on the latest episode of the weekly Colorado Football Coaches Show in Boulder. A significant issue for him is the effect on viewers of such late starts, especially on the East Coast, where the game starts at the difficult 10pm. He countered, “Do they even care about the ratings, or does anyone who watches it?” Ironically, a late game in Colorado earlier in the season generated a significant audience for ESPN.
When Colorado faced Colorado State on Sept. 16, the game drew a whopping 9.3 million viewers, even though it ended after 2 a.m. on the East Coast. The game became ESPN’s most-watched late game of all time. However, Sanders’ displeasure with the timing was evident even then. Addressing the challenges of late starts, Sanders highlighted the challenges of managing player performance before such games.
What are we supposed to do with the kids all day until eight?” he asked. Given that teams, including his own, typically stay in hotels before home games, Sanders reiterated that filling the long waits would be problematic. When host Mark Johnson suggested watching football, Sanders said, “Who’s playing on Friday?” The Deion Sanders Effect: Colorado Vs. The Colorado State game was the most-watched late prime-time game in ESPN history and the fifth-most-watched game on ESPN.
It was also the most streamed regular season college football game of all time. Sanders is relieved to leave the Pac-12 The coach also reminded viewers that Colorado will soon be leaving the Pac-12 Conference. He said with relief, “Thank God we are not in this conference.” The move to the Big 12 next season will require more games against teams in the Central and Eastern time zones, which will hopefully result in fewer 10 PM ET kickoffs. Interestingly, Sanders seems to be more consistent with the earlier games, as his Buffaloes played three games at 10 am. local time, which fits well with his early bird lifestyle.
As for his personal plans to fill time before Friday’s late start? Sanders humorously mentioned, “I just look up at (television personality) Steve Harvey and watch it all day. That’s my man.”
