As native and current Iowans, we're necessarily biased toward later kickoff times. They mean later Saturday wakeups, and to be honest, there really isn't that much benefit to pounding 9 beers on a Saturday morning before 11 a.m., then sitting in Kinnick for four hours while they wear off and you get sunburned and/or hung over. And then it's still just 2 p.m. and you're left wondering what the hell you were thinking. Not fun. No really, it's not.
Thus, then, the antithesis of the Saturday From Hell is the late kickoff. And even if it doesn't happen at Kinnick, it at least affords everybody the possibility of having a normal-person weekend, where you do things like wake up at normal-person times and don't spend 4-7 daylight hours sleeping off a hungover tailgate at dawn.
And if normal-people bedtimes and wakeups are something that appeal to you, boy, have we got good news. EXHIBIT BOO:
For the second year in a row, Iowa and Penn State will play football in prime time.
The Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions will meet in a nationally televised night game on Oct. 2 at Kinnick Stadium, according to a scheduled released Wednesday by the Big Ten.
The game will be aired by either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, with the kickoff set for 7:05 p.m.
And EXHIBIT YA:
Nothing is official yet, but Arizona’s most significant non-conference game of the 2010 season — against Iowa — likely will be a 7:30 p.m. start at Arizona Stadium.
A news release Wednesday from Iowa about its schedule said the game will be televised by a yet-to-be-determined network, but an Arizona official said that would be ESPN.
Honestly, we wish every single game started at 3:30 or later, but we also love sleep more than anything else, so our opinions are of limited merit. But you know what? We don't trust anyone who likes the 11:00 a.m. kickoff either, so their opinions are bullshit too. So whatever. The more night games, the better, end of story.
Also, the real upset here is that "Night Games" is not, in fact, the name of any Skinemax softcore pornos. Upset of the century.