Arkansas AD blasts kickoff times for Week 2 game at Utah and Week 3 game vs. Georgia

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Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek is unhappy with the kickoff times of two of the Razorbacks’ first games of the season.

Yurachek released a statement Wednesday afternoon expressing his displeasure with a late start in Week 2 against Utah and an early start in Week 3 against Georgia.

“ESPN has set our game at Utah for 9:15 p.m. Central Time on September 12,” Yurachek wrote. “We anticipate returning to campus at approximately 6 a.m. on Sunday, September 13 — followed by an 11 a.m. home kickoff against Georgia just six days later on September 19.

“This assigned schedule will cost our student-athletes nearly a full day of rest and recovery that they would otherwise have available to them. This is not simply a competitive disadvantage — it is a genuine welfare issue for the young men who represent our program and contribute greatly to the bottom line of our television partners.

“This type of scheduling is unacceptable and demonstrates a clear neglect for the well-being of college athletes. I am confident that there are not many other programs in the SEC that would be placed in a similar position, and I will not quietly accept it for our program.”

He added that he’s asked the SEC and ESPN to “aggressively pursue an alternative solution” for at least one of the kickoff times.

While Yurachek’s frustration is understandable, he has little room to complain given that Arkansas also benefits greatly from the SEC’s relationship with ESPN. Could ESPN have scheduled the Georgia game for later in the day? Sure. But it also has the right to make it an early kickoff because of all the money it pays to the conference to have the rights to its games. Arkansas’ athletic department would have far less money from its media rights agreement if it was not in the SEC (or Big Ten).

It’s also hard to take Yurachek’s claims entirely seriously when other college administrators have willingly put their athletes in worse travel positions. Traveling from Arkansas to Utah and back is nothing compared to the trips that UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington make to Big Ten locations in the Eastern Time Zone and the trips that Utah, Arizona and Arizona State make to UCF and West Virginia in the Big 12.

And besides, Yurachek’s athletic department agreed to the Utah game in the first place. The risk of a late kickoff time came with scheduling the game.

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