Almost surprisingly the University of Louisville will be playing in basketball game on a Saturday, traveling to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech at 4 p.m. Imagine that. Fans of the schools catching a break from a television network.

The TV networks, in their unquenchable thirst for ratings, would have fans believing that a combination of late night games and noon games is the new normal. Of the last four UofL games, two have been played at 9 p.m. in mid-week and two others on Sundays, one at noon, the other at 8 p.m.

Like people who have been watching games at 7 p.m. all their lives aren’t fazed by late-night games. Or bothered by having to get up early for noon games. The network executives have far more pressing concerns.TV image

The formula for determining noon football games is pretty predictable. If one’s team is having a mediocre season, one can expect to be playing lots of noon games. Unless the foe that week happens to be highly-ranked opponent. Get on a roll, however, and more prime time slots quickly become available. The problem for football fans is not knowing the kickoff times very far in advance.

Attendance for home games will inevitably be affected, as it was for UofL football this past season, with three games kicking off at 12:30. Average attendance dropped below 50,000 at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium for the first time in three seasons.

Much easier for college basketball fans because the time slots for most games are announced before the season begins. The only exception on this year’s UofL schedule is the final game at Virginia, for which no tipoff time has been announced. Following the football model, if UofL continues to win and Virginia keeps stumbling, they will have a noon tipoff.

The inherent problem is that even the most prominent athletic conferences and the universities have effectively handed off control of key aspects of their programs. Handed them off to people who don’t have the same interest in seeing them succeed or fail in terms of fan support, adding to the pressure of winning and losing.

TV exposure has, for now, overtaken such concerns as ticket prices, attendance, concessions and parking as the No. 1 priority for the decisionmakers. Too bad if that comes with some major inconvenience to the most loyal fans.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.