The Bison are going to get their first season of Great American Conference football in Division II started early. Early in the day on opening weekend, that is.
Oklahoma Baptist is set to host Harding in the home and season opener on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015.
And the kickoff time is slated for … 11 a.m.
Sounds like a time made for a national TV audience, but no, that’s not the case for OBU just yet.
Scheduling conflict? Not at all. The fans is Shawnee will be ready to watch their hometown team take to the football field for the first game of the season. It’s unlikely to think anyone in Pottawatomie County will have anything else at all scheduled on that Saturday.
Actually the answer is simple. It’s an early start time to avoid the heat.
There are no lights at Hurt Field, so the way to avoid the early September afternoon Oklahoma heat is to avoid, at least partially, the afternoon.
Good call. At the season opener in 2013, the first game for a reborn football program back from 70-plus years, the temperature on the field at game time was 117 degrees. Â (Really! It was. I was there.)
So with no night games for now, the Bison hit the plains early on a Saturday morning to get underway on the gridiron. And even with an early start, count on the fact that Hurt Field will be filled beyond capacity for the kickoff