If you stop and think about it, the way scheduling is handled in college football is a bit insane. The NFL, for instance, waits until April to release its slate... but when it's done, it's done. A game here or there may move from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night but, for the most part, a game scheduled in April for 1 p.m. on a December Sunday will stay that way when December actually arrives.
And then there's college football's scheduling method.
For example, Maryland already fans know their Terps will visit Ohio State on Nov. 9, 2019. But they probably won't know what time the game will actually be played until Monday, Oct. 28 if they're lucky and Sunday, Nov. 3 if they're not. In any other walk of life, in any other sport, we would consider that insane.
As a coach, you schedule your team's game day in a wildly different fashion for a noon kick than you do for an 8:30 kick, don't you? Fans have to do the same thing.
Knowing your game will be played on a certain day is one thing, but trying to juggle whether your family can make Alma Mater U.'s game after Jimmy's Saturday morning soccer game, or figuring out whether you need to pull out of the driveway by 7 a.m. to make the three-hour drive to campus in time for a noon kick versus renting a hotel room to avoid driving making that same three-hour drive home through the dead of night after an 8:30 kick is aggressively inconvenient to do on 12- or 6-day's notice.
Colorado has found a way around that.
Beginning this season, the Buffs will offer ticket holders a window lasting until 48 hours before kickoff to exchange that week's tickets for tickets for a future game in the event of a conflict. It's not a refund, so the policy works for both parties -- fans aren't forced to have their tickets go unused, and Colorado doesn't have to give back any money.
"We understand from feedback from our fans that the issue of when game times are announced can be a challenge," CU associate AD Matt Biggers said. "We believe this exchange program will help alleviate some of that for our season ticket holders by giving them another option if a particular game time does not fit well into their personal schedule."
Getting fans through the turnstile has never been more difficult in college football and, therefore, those fans that have already purchased tickets have never been more valuable. It's incumbent upon athletics departments to do everything in their power to reasonably serve those fans, so kudos to the Buffaloes for finding a way to do that.