Stanford football’s 2024 schedule has been out for a hot minute, but recently kickoff times got announced for five games:
Friday, August 30th vs. TCU (7:30 PM PT on ESPN)
Saturday, September 7th vs. Cal Poly (4:00 PM PT on ACCNX)
Friday, September 20th at Syracuse (4:30 PM PT on ESPN)
Saturday, October 12th at Notre Dame (12:30 PM PT on NBC)
Friday, November 29th at San Jose State (1:00 PM PT on CBS)
The following seven games are still awaiting a kickoff time:
Saturday, September 28th at Clemson
Saturday, October 5th vs. Virginia Tech
Saturday, October 19th vs. SMU
Saturday, October 26th vs. Wake Forest
Saturday, November 2nd at NC State
Saturday, November 16th vs. Louisville
Saturday, November 23rd at Cal
Getting a late night to start off the season is fun. Friday night lights is always a good time and to have one of your night slots be the home opener I think is cool. TCU is in the central time zone, so that kickoff time will feel extra late for them. That could give Stanford a bit of an advantage. Fans that come will be able to spend their Friday evening tailgating in Eucalyptus Grove before heading into Stanford Stadium to watch the Cardinal kickoff the ACC era.
The 4:30 PM PT kickoff time at Syracuse is ideal. If you are Stanford, you don’t want an early morning kickoff on the East Coast. The last thing you want to do as a college student on the West Coast is take a cross country flight and then wake up at some ungodly hour to tussle in upstate New York with a team whose mascot is a citrus. Not that having a mascot as a tree is all that much better, but you get the idea. I suspect we'll see a lot of road ACC games for Stanford and Cal be in this time slot. Not too early. Not too late.
I should also add this game will be a reunion of sorts for Stanford quarterback Justin Lamson. He transferred to Stanford from Syracuse. I'm sure he's excited for this one.
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The earliest kickoff time at the moment is at Notre Dame and even that isn’t bad. 12:30 PM PT is totally fine. Stanford should have plenty of time to get sleep the night before, have a good breakfast at the hotel, and be afforded enough time to listen to their favorite pre-game hype music.
More broadly speaking, the fact that eight of Stanford’s 12 games are in the Bay Area is a blessing for them. Travel-wise, this schedule is chill. Especially when you factor in the double bye.
Speaking of Bay Area games away from The Farm, the San Jose State game being on CBS I think is awesome and the 1:00 PM PT kickoff time is perfect. Fans of both schools will be able to get a good morning tailgate in before heading to the stadium formerly known as Spartan Stadium. Enjoying the crisp autumn air of Silicon Valley.
The Stanford-San Jose State rivalry is a classic and one that should never have gone away in the first place. The fact that it is being resurrected is great for both programs. I really dig that they are calling this the Bill Walsh Legacy Game. Bill Walsh had such a huge impact on both programs and the Bay Area at large given what he did with the 49ers in the decade that Michael Jackson released Thriller and Bad: Three Super Bowl championships.
I’ll have more thoughts on the schedule once all the times get announced and we get closer to the season, but for now, I wanted to at least provide some early thoughts on the kickoff times that have been announced. Should be a fun opening season for the Cardinal in the ACC.
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