Houston is ranked as the No. 20 team in college football at 3-1. Regardless of their ranking, the Cougars made a specific request for the time of kickoff against UCF on Saturday.
ESPN and the Big 12 Conference did not listen.
Saturday’s college football game at TDECU Stadium will kickoff at 11:00 a.m. This continues an unfortunate trend.
Houston asked for a night game.
The University of Houston Athletics Department announced in March that nine current and former Cougars will be inducted into the Houston Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Oct. 1. The honorees include eight former student-athletes and the current men’s basketball coach.
- Kimble Anders — Football
- Siong Ang — Men’s Swimming and Diving
- Lilly Denoon — Volleyball
- Ed Fiori — Men’s Golf
- Monica Lamb-Powell — Women’s Basketball
- Audray McMillian — Football
- Ollie Taylor — Men’s Basketball
- Jessica Valis Shimek — Softball
- Kelvin Sampson — Men’s Basketball Head Coach
The 2026 honorees are the 24th class to be inducted into the Hall of Honor. This year’s Gala is set for this coming Friday, Oct. 2. at the Post Oak Hotel. It will include a live and silent auction, dinner and presentation ceremonies. Proceeds from the event “enable Houston Athletics to continue to provide championship resources to 400+ student-athletes and 12 sport programs.” Sponsorship levels are as follow:
- $50,000 | Hall of Fame
- $25,000 | Olympian
- $15,000 | National Champion
- $10,000 | All-American
- $6,000 | All-Conference
- $2,500 | All-Star Couple
All of this goes to say that the Cougars’ most important donors and fans will be out late on Friday night for the Hall of Honor Gala. They don’t want to get home and get up right back up for game day on early Saturday morning.
With that in mind, Houston reached out to the Big 12 Conference a year ago in regard to kickoff. It was hoping to play a night game so not to overwhelm its fanbase with such a quick turn around. This has been in the works for 12 months. The Cougars were consistent in their ask.
ESPN and the Big 12 ignored the Cougars’ request for kickoff.
Kickoff times for Week 5 were released last weekend. That included Saturday’s game between Houston and UCF.
The Cougars are not happy with their time slot and threw shade at the selection in its announcement.
“Houston Football will kick off in its next Big 12 game once again at 11 a.m. against UCF on ESPN2.”
Athletic director Eddie Nuñez released the following statement to the Houston Chronicle:
“It’s unfortunate. I just want to make sure that our fans know that we will continue to work with the conference office and our television partners to get them to understand that, for us, it’s important to not have every game be a day game. Our team has earned it. They are a top 20 program and they should have the opportunity to build for our fans to have night games, not just continual day games as we’ve seen here.”
Houston has played only one Saturday night conference game since 2024. Is it because of attendance? The Cougars have struggled to fill the stadium in recent years. This season is not the exception.
However, it is the television partner that typically chooses the kickoff times. They don’t really care about attendance. They care about the matchup and viewership. Maybe Houston isn’t a TV draw?