In college football, programs have two choices: A) Play at convenient times, or B) Play when TV tells you to play. Everyone chooses option B. Even in the rich and mighty Big Ten, last week No. 1 Oregon played at 5 p.m. local time on a Friday, and this Friday Rutgers will kick off at 11 p.m. local.
This week, some North Texas fans had the gall to complain about their kick time for Saturday's game with Tulane, chosen for the diabolical time of 11 a.m. I say "some" because I have no idea how large this contingent actually is, but evidently their complaints were loud enough to reach the ears of Mean Green head coach Eric Morris.
"People complaining about 11 o'clock, like, get over yourself. You can go back to the Southland Conference and pick when you want (to play). We don't get to pick it. You're playing, for the third or fourth time this year, a national TV game. Get over yourself, get up a little earlier, come tailgate and have fun, then go home and enjoy those late games on your couch."
For context, Morris brought up the complaints unprompted after he was asked by Denton Record-Chronicle beat writer Brett Vito about encouraging fans to return to campus for the Homecoming game, which Saturday's tilt versus Tulane is.
"I don't get the complaining that it's 11 o'clock. Okay? You're playing a great team on national TV in a great conference. What are we complaining about?
"That's just my two cents."
To date, Morris and Mean Green Nation have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. Morris pushed to sell out DATCU Stadium for Wyoming's visit last month and, while they didn't quite fill the 30,850 capacity, the Mean Green drew a top-10 crowd of 27,049 to see the home team put a 44-17 whooping on the Cowboys.
Following a 5-7 debut, Morris is off to a 5-2 start to his second season, and Saturday's visit from Tulane is one of the biggest games in the 14-year history of DATCU Stadium -- and arguably in program history. At 2-1 in the American, UNT needs to defeat the Green Wave to remain in the hunt for the American championship, and thus to remain in the chase for a College Football Playoff berth. A loss would all but eliminate the Mean Green, with 6-0 Army, 4-0 Navy, 3-0 Tulane and 2-1 Memphis (who beat UNT last Saturday) ahead of them.
What's more, the 11 a.m. kick was because the game was chosen for air by ESPN2. It's the first Saturday Mean Green home game on record to air on ESPN or ESPN2; UNT has played two home games previously on ESPN2, but both were on Tuesdays.
What's double more is that UNT boasts one of the deadliest offenses in college football. North Texas is third nationally in total offense, 10th in yards per play and ninth in scoring. Quarterback Chandler Morris is third in the nation in passing and second in passing touchdowns.
Saturday's game will be North Texas's fourth game this season to air on linear television and third consecutive, and a win Saturday would make No. 23 Army's visit on Nov. 9 a near certainty for Big Boy TV as well, especially with the Black Knights likely to still be undefeated when they come to Denton. (Army's off this week and hosts 1-6 Air Force on Nov. 2.)
"You only get six of these Saturdays a year," Morris said. "Our kids play hard. I think it's a fun brand of football."