Deion Sanders rips Pac-12 over 'After Dark' kickoffs: "dumbest thing ever"
Deion Sanders is not a fan of the Pac-12's late night affairs. The Colorado Buffaloes football coach returned to his weekly radio show appearance in Boulder on Wednesday and expressed his feelings on a sore subject with many.
“Who makes these eight o’clock games? That is the dumbest thing ever, Sanders said."
"It’s the stupidest thing ever in life. Who wants to stay up until eight o’clock for a dern game? What about the East Coast? Do they even care about ratings or anybody watching it?”
Sanders is absolutely right on this one, and it's been a point of contention for years with anyone associated with Colorado. The late starts with contests going into all hours of the night possibly cost former Stanford star Christian McCaffrey a Heisman, according to Barry Switzer. It's no wonder why a majority of teams are dumping the Pac-12.
Sanders followed it up by saying, “Thank God we’re not going to be in this conference."
Colorado hosts Stanford on Friday with a 10 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN. The last time this scenario played itself out the Buffs, it ended with a 2 a.m. ET double-overtime win over CSU in the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
The Pac-12’s television deal is split between the networks of FOX and ESPN. Other conference games not picked up for national coverage are pushed off on the Pac-12 Network, which failed to strike a deal with DirecTV over the past decade.
