TAMPA - If Arkansas was hoping for sympathy over its kickoff times, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey didn’t exactly hand it out Monday.
The Razorbacks are staring at a brutal scheduling stretch: a Week Two trip to Utah with a 9:15 p.m. CT kickoff, followed by a Week Three home game against Georgia that is set for 11 a.m.
CT. The late start in Utah is part of the deal.
The early start against Georgia is what drew Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek’s frustration when the SEC announced kickoff times.
Yurachek took his complaint to X after the schedule was released, but the reaction wasn’t exactly the wave of support he may have expected. Nearly two months later, the issue came up again at SEC Media Days, and Sankey’s message was simple: the television partners are driving the bus.
“We addressed that up front before it was released, when we realized the tightness, relatively speaking, of the [Mountain Time Zone] Saturday night kickoff and the early kickoff,” Sankey said Monday at SEC Media Days. “We have delegated that authority to our television partner. So we have different views, not infrequently, on where games should be placed.
"And sometimes those are campus views, and sometimes those are at the conference level. I think big picture, our schools do a great job from a travel standpoint, a support standpoint, to allow for recovery and preparation.”
Sankey said the conference has already had to deal with these kinds of issues as it has worked through its kickoff designations.
“We'll complain about issues with our campuses at times, but television gets to make those decisions in this world right now,” Sankey continued. “And then you make a set of notes about next time we go into a contract conversation. And keep in mind, our kickoff designations are very different than anyone else's.
""We're way ahead of what we've done, so we've had learning experiences. We've used those, and we kind of keep the running list of adjustments we might want to make in the future.
The bottom line for Arkansas is that the networks have the final say on where games land in the weekly TV windows, and the SEC isn’t in a position to override that. Until the league’s current television deals come back up for negotiation, schools can gripe all they want. It probably won’t change much.
For the Razorbacks, that means getting ready for an 11 a.m. showdown with Georgia just a week after the trip to Utah. The schedule may not be ideal, but the task in front of them is still the same: win games and keep climbing.
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