Why do college football games start at noon Eastern and NFL start at 1pm Eastern?

[quantumleap]

I've been following football for decades and knew when the respective sports started each day but just recently I wondered if there might be a reason why the two times were different and how they were selected.

Anyone know?

 

[Wagerallsports]

Good question Q

 

[flyingillini]

I want to know as well, NFL games start at 1am for me now.

 

[Archie]

let the people get home from church and post church shopping/coffee/paper ECT

we put the Lord FIRST in America

 

[Wagerallsports]

I think another question is how many football fans we truly have here lol

Football season and so many MIA on the topic in middle of the season.

TheRx blowing us away as you know first hand Q

Embarrassing

 

[Wagerallsports]

let the people get home from church and post church shopping/coffee/paper ECT

we put the Lord FIRST in America

Yes ageed this is likely the main reason

 

[quantumleap]

I want to know as well, NFL games start at 1am for me now.

That's one bad thing about being in SEA.

I remember when I was there in January I watched the college football championship game. The game started at 4:45pm Pacific Time but it was 2:45am Manila time. That was OK though since I hadn't full acclimated to the time change yet.

 

[quantumleap]

I think another question is how many football fans we truly have here lol

Football season and so many MIA on the topic in middle of the season.

TheRx blowing us away as you know first hand Q

Embarrassing

I actually haven't spent much time over there other than the main forum so I had no idea how busy their football forum was. It went downhill a few years ago so I never really checked other than the main forum.

 

[Archie]

NFL more nation wide TV coverage gotta respect that west coast team fans will be more likely to want to tune into Rams vs Ravens


.vs hundreds of colleges nd more regional until recently. most west coast casuals weren't caring to tune into Syracuse vs Boston college. so 8 am east coast time fine. as it wouldnt have been televised there anyways

 

[Pimike]

Exactly

 

[Wagerallsports]

I actually haven't spent much time over there other than the main forum so I had no idea how busy their football forum was. It went downhill a few years ago so I never really checked other than the main forum.

Football forums are active

Main forum not so much

That has always been the difference there compared to other forums where it’s vice-versa

 

[kidcudi92]

IU @ OSU should be 3:30, the biggest game of the day at 12 is wild

 

[flyingillini]

That's one bad thing about being in SEA.

I remember when I was there in January I watched the college football championship game. The game started at 4:45pm Pacific Time but it was 2:45am Manila time. That was OK though since I hadn't full acclimated to the time change yet.

Not bad at all to be honest with you. I am sound asleep so it does not matter. I get to watch games first thing when I wake up. Sometimes if I am up I will be up for the 1st quarter of a college game then doze off. But when I am back in California I get to watch all the games. headed back in early December!

 

[quantumleap]

NFL more nation wide TV coverage gotta respect that west coast team fans will be more likely to want to tune into Rams vs Ravens


.vs hundreds of colleges nd more regional until recently. most west coast casuals weren't caring to tune into Syracuse vs Boston college. so 8 am east coast time fine. as it wouldnt have been televised there anyways

Makes sense, Arch. Thanks.

 

[charliebrown]

We need the Superbowl to be on a sat

 

[MinnesotaFats]

Well, this issue was started by a Maryland law that prohibited any sporting event before 1400, (part of the deal that brought the St Louis Browns to Baltimore in the 50s to become the Orioles, BTW what are the odds that 2 teams named the Browns would relocate to Baltimore), changed when DST was adopted to 1300, so when TV became a thing and Johnny Unitas was still a big thing, the TV deal & League contracts were simply set up to conform to Marylands law: 1300 kickoff. From there you just factor in game length and if you want a nationally televised double header that puts the west coast at 1430 EST or 1400 EST if not a doubleheader on the network.

College is different as the TV & fan base is localized, 1030 or 11 seems natural, you get a neutral sun situation as all stadiums are outdoors & open ended bowls (don't want half the field dark)

 

[quantumleap]

Well, this issue was started by a Maryland law that prohibited any sporting event before 1400, (part of the deal that brought the St Louis Browns to Baltimore in the 50s to become the Orioles, BTW what are the odds that 2 teams named the Browns would relocate to Baltimore), changed when DST was adopted to 1300, so when TV became a thing and Johnny Unitas was still a big thing, the TV deal & League contracts were simply set up to conform to Marylands law: 1300 kickoff. From there you just factor in game length and if you want a nationally televised double header that puts the west coast at 1430 EST or 1400 EST if not a doubleheader on the network.

College is different as the TV & fan base is localized, 1030 or 11 seems natural, you get a neutral sun situation as all stadiums are outdoors & open ended bowls (don't want half the field dark)

I did not know that. Thanks fatty!

 

[Archie]

Well, this issue was started by a Maryland law that prohibited any sporting event before 1400, (part of the deal that brought the St Louis Browns to Baltimore in the 50s to become the Orioles, BTW what are the odds that 2 teams named the Browns would relocate to Baltimore), changed when DST was adopted to 1300, so when TV became a thing and Johnny Unitas was still a big thing, the TV deal & League contracts were simply set up to conform to Marylands law: 1300 kickoff. From there you just factor in game length and if you want a nationally televised double header that puts the west coast at 1430 EST or 1400 EST if not a doubleheader on the network.

College is different as the TV & fan base is localized, 1030 or 11 seems natural, you get a neutral sun situation as all stadiums are outdoors & open ended bowls (don't want half the field dark)

started there???not really. the NFL wasn't setting their whole league around 6 or 7 Baltimore hahes a year. the rest of the NFL went at their set times. it just affected balt colts. then they changed laws when ravens came to town

 

[Tanko]

Another reason could be to get an extra cycle of games in for CFB. With so many CFB teams you need more “windows” to broadcast as many games as possible on each network.

Noon CFB starts means you can have another “window” to show more games. They can start at noon, 3, 6, and 9pm.

In NFL, fewer teams = having only 3 “windows” to show games 1, 4, and 7.

 

[MinnesotaFats]

started there???not really. the NFL wasn't setting their whole league around 6 or 7 Baltimore hahes a year. the rest of the NFL went at their set times. it just affected balt colts. then they changed laws when ravens came to town

Sunday "blue laws"

Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cinci, NYC, DC, etc all had some form of prohibition, either alcohol sales, car sales, sporting events, etc. But yes, the NFL worked it's TV deal around Unitas, who was in Baltimore, in 1961 with CBS, this also lead to the Sports Broadcasting Act, which prohibited games starting before 1300 and limited it to Sundays only, in exchange, CBS got exemption from anti trust inquiries in the deal, and ABC the same with their exclusive AFL deal, and that is how NFL kickoff times became standardized.