One SEC athletic director is fuming over the start times for two of his team’s games, and on Wednesday, conference commissioner Greg Sankey weighed in on the matter.
Arkansas athletic director and College Football Playoff chairman Hunter Yurachek on Tuesday took issue with the Razorbacks being scheduled for a 10:05 p.m. ET kickoff at Utah on Sept. 5, only to return the next Saturday for a noon Eastern game against Georgia on Sept. 12.
Yuracheck blames the media partners’ bottom line for the scheduling of the two games and called out ESPN by name.
Sankey said he understands Yuracheck’s concern and said the league addressed the matter with ESPN.
“We have communicated the displeasure in advance,” Sankey said. “It hasn’t changed. That’s one of those points of authority that are given to our broadcast partner.”
With the plea to the SEC shot down, the only people who can fix the issue are at ESPN now.
The network has the authority to change the schedules after the SEC signed a 10-year deal with ESPN that included ceding control over kickoff times.
There is time for ESPN to rework the schedule, if they choose to but it will be beyond Yuracheck’s and the SEC’s control.
In a statement released on X on Tuesday, Yurachek posted that he was not focused on flight costs or the late nights fans would have to endure in Week 1, which is still an issue, but argued the big problem is that playing two back-to-back week games at those times will be a health issue for the players.
“This assigned schedule will cost our student-athletes nearly a full day of rest and recovery that they would otherwise have available to them,” Yurachek stated. “This is not simply a competitive disadvantage- it is a genuine welfare issue for the young men who represent our program and contribute greatly to the bottom line of our television partners.”
Yurachek asked both the SEC and ESPN to find a solution to the issue.
Though it is the first time Arkansas has dealt with this issue, it will remain a concern as the Big Ten and the ACC have added West Coast teams in recent years, which will likely cause similar scheduling dilemmas.
Many teams have already flown out West and then had to return home to the East Coast to prepare for the next week.