Chris Petersen apologizes for ‘painful’ late start times
Chris Petersen on Monday apologized to his fans for the constant late starting times for Washington’s football games this season.
The Huskies are 5-0 this season and have not had a kickoff time of early than 5 p.m., which is 8 p.m. on the East Coast. They just learned their next two games will begin at 7:45 p.m., which means it will be around midnight on the East Coast before the game hits halftime.
“I just want to say something to our fans: we apologize for these late games. And I’d also like to reiterate it has nothing to do with us or the administration,” Petersen said Monday, via the AP. “We want to play at 1 p.m. It hurts us tremendously in terms of national exposure. No one wants to watch our game on the East Coast that late, and we all know it. We haven’t had a kickoff before 5 p.m. this season.
“And so it’s painful for our team, it’s painful for our administration and we know certainly the most important part is for our fans.”
As the Huskies have become better, their games are more desirable for placement on national TV. The spots available for Pac-12 games to be aired nationally are generally at night, which results in the late kickoff times. It’s somewhat of a good problem to have. That means Petersen and Huskies fans better get used to this because it’s not likely to change the rest of the season.
