Wednesday, April 11, 2007

This is Re-goddamn-diculous

The gift of playing Marshall just keeps on giving. Not only do we lose millions in home game revenue and have to play a team that has been consistently ranked in the bottom half of Division I teams, but we get to do it before noon. The Charleston Daily Mail has confirmed an 11:10 kickoff for the game. 11:10, in the morning. That's 8:10 for anyone on the West Coast. I'll just reprint some of this from the Daily Mail because I can't make any better jokes than this:

While it might not seem that a pre-noon kickoff is optimum of a showcase situation like the Herd will have with a rare Mountaineer visit, a morning start isn't new for a big game at Marshall.
When Kansas State became the first Bowl Championship Series conference team to visit Joan C. Edwards Stadium in September 2005, the game had a 10:40 a.m. kickoff on ESPN2. Marcum recalled the early start surely didn't affect attendance. The largest crowd in MU history turned out -- 36,914. That number will be eclipsed at the 38,019-seat stadium for WVU's first trip to Huntington since 1915.


The two biggest home games in the history of the school and neither could wait until noon. Mathew Mcconaughey doesn't even roll out of bed until 1:30. How is he going to get there to make a firey motivational speech before the Herd lose by 40? My only guess is that Marshall is trying to either discourage visiting fans from taking over the stadium or keep people from drinking before the game. And the outcome is that the largest attendence in the history of Cabell Community College is under 37K. If WVU averaged under 37K for a year we would be thrown out of the Big East and rightfully so.


The WVU-Marshall telecast is one of 10 Conference USA home dates on ESPN or ESPN2. As the home team, the Herd has the final say on the kickoff time, but these days, if TV wants a game moved, it usually does.


Apparently the next time WVU visits it will be played at 3 a.m. just to get the game on ESPNU. Thanks again Joe.

4 comments:

Option Spread said...

Gotta squeeze it in before that Busch Series Race. YeeHaw!

letsplaytummysticks said...

and tummysticks will make sure to turn his phone off the night before.

Option Spread said...

Ah, I'm sure that hangover will be just as bareable as the one during the Blue-Gold game, except we will all be 4 months older and closer to death.

letsplaytummysticks said...

I'm sure I'll be able to control myself the night before the game as usual.