The kickoff time for Stanford’s next home game against Arizona State on Saturday, October 22nd has been announced: 1:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks and KNBR 1050 AM radio. This will be Stanford’s first afternoon kickoff of the year after having to play most of their games in the darkness of night.
Stanford has not been happy to get a bunch of late night kickoffs as it has affected their ability to get back to studying at a reasonable hour of the day. So this is news that I’m sure the entire team is thrilled about. Rather than cooling their heels for hours and hours before finally taking the field, they can wake up, eat breakfast, and head straight to the stadium to begin their pre-game routines. And then of course after the game, it will be early evening, giving the players a chance to head back to their studies or possibly unwind a bit at TAP (The Axe & Palm), CoHo, or the Treehouse. Or maybe even take a nice evening stroll down Palm Drive into the downtown.
Whether or not an earlier kickoff will have an effect on Stanford’s performance remains to be seen. I’m sure if they win, it’ll be something they’ll point to as being a benefit for them though if I can be honest, I don’t think the late night kickoffs have had much of an impact on their quality of play. It certainly can’t be blamed for the way the defense utterly collapsed in that final drive against Oregon State.
That all being said, it is good to mix things up for all teams and have an even distribution of kickoffs times. Stanford head coach David Shaw does have a point about guys getting back in the early morning not being ideal and it certainly wouldn’t be fair to make one team have to deal with that more than other teams.
Also, the time of day in which you play does have an effect on the game, though I don’t think it’s something that either team can use as an excuse should they lose. Conditions are different in the day versus the night in terms of temperature, wind, and humidity. Those are all things that do have impact on the game and it’s best to make sure everyone has an even balance of kickoff times because of those factors as well.
Lastly, it’s fairer for fans. A lot of fans prefer the early afternoon kickoffs over the late night ones. It certainly isn’t fair to give one fan base a disproportionate amount of late night kickoffs. With this being Stanford’s homecoming game, I’m sure a lot of alums will be happy to have an earlier kickoff as well. Just so they can end their day on a positive note should the football game not go as they hope. And then if Stanford does get the win, it’ll give them more options to pick where they can have their post-game celebration. At midnight, the only places open in downtown Palo Alto is the 7-11 and maybe a pizza joint or two.
So all of this is to say that it’s good Stanford is getting a 1:00 PM kickoff as opposed to another late night kickoff. Even though I don’t think it’ll have any impact on the game, it is good the team is getting an earlier kickoff just for the sake of fairness and equity.
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