As we are getting more insights into the kickoff times for the approaching season, our first taste of scheduling in the new SEC was met with some disappointment. A noon kickoff to start the year against Clemson, compared to the start times of other games (lesser games, in our eyes) already cranked the complaint machine into high gear about what may come.

As it turns out, a few other times were revealed – Kentucky and Alabama with 7:30 kicks, and Florida at the traditional 3:30. It was also revealed that under the new league media contract, only two games would be noon kickoffs…which got me to wondering…what kind of charmed scheduling life have we lead the past few years?

I looked at our schedule during the golden era of the past few years – the 2021-2023 season – and analyzed games against P5 teams only. Taking out the lesser games (we did have an midday kick against UAB in 21, Samford in 22, and a rare 6 pm kick against Tennessee Martin last year) I tried to analyze our SEC and P5 games for kickoff times, and also wondered how formidable that 7:30 kick is going to be against Kentucky and Alabama.

I was a little surprised, to be honest. Of the 36 P5 games played over the past three years, only 5 were a noon kick (14% of all games), and our majority of games were played from 3:30 pm on. The most common kickoff time was 3:30 pm (44% of games), with our least common being 8 pm games (vs. Ohio State and Alabama in CFP games).

Not surprisingly, as the day wears on, the percentage of games against Top 25 opponents increased. Also noted in the Average Ranking Difference, which is an insight into team rankings when we played the team at the time, the biggest disparity in opponent quality was a noon kick (not a shock), but the second largest gap was at the 3:30 and 7:30 time slots.

The 4 pm kicks were all SECCG, with our only two losses notched in this time frame coming to Alabama. The margin between UGA and opponent ranking was slimmest in the 4 pm and 8 pm contests, although the 8 pm was rarer because of the CFP broadcast, and average point difference disparity between the 8 pm contest and others comes chiefly from the one-point miracle win against tOSU in 2022.

When analyzing kick times by period (noon, midday (3:30-4:00), and evening), here’s the data:

Although a higher percentage of our opponents in evening games were in the Top 25, the average ranking difference between the two time period showed a narrow gap between UGA and opponent ranking occurred during midday games (again, 4 pm games were three SECCGs – vs. Alabama in 21 (L), Alabama in 23 (L), LSU in 22 (W), and the FSU slaughter in the 23 Orange Bowl).

I plan to backfill and include the years from 2017-2020 when I get some time…but if trends hold, a few questions:

• Given the point disparity in noon games, is is safe to say we cover the 13.5 against Clemson?
• With a tighter point differential in evening games, is it safe to assume we can win but can’t cover the -4.5 in Tuscaloosa and the -14.5 in Lexington? If you go with Sagarin ranking metrics, without starting the season, you give 3 points to the home team…I’d take a one point win over Alabama as much as I would take a 21 point one, just win baby win…

One thing I learned from analyzing, though, it this – noon kicks are generally a recipe for success, and we have bigger things to worry about than how much drinking and sitting on ass we do before entering a football game. As one commenter on Twix said, don’t bitch about the noon kickoff…you can’t see you drank all day if you didn’t start in the morning.

I guess gameday sobriety is for the coaches and puritans, anyway.