Arkansas AD ‘extremely concerned and displeased’ with kickoff times, including at Utah
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Michael Woods, Associated Press
Kickoff times for Utah’s first three games of the 2026 season were released Wednesday and one game time in particular drew the ire of Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek.
Utah will host the Razorbacks on Sept. 12 at 8:15 p.m. MDT at Rice-Eccles Stadium, it was announced, with the game being televised on ESPN.
Yurachek, who is also the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee, took exception to the game time, especially with the Razorbacks playing an 11 a.m. game against Georgia the next Saturday.
“I am extremely concerned and displeased about the recently released kickoff times for our football program in consecutive weeks this September and the impact it will have on the well-being of our student-athletes,” Yurachek wrote in a post on X.
“ESPN has set our game at Utah for 9:15 p.m. Central Time on September 12. 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.
— Hunter Yurachek (@HunterYurachek) May 27, 2026
“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.”
In the statement, Yurcheck wrote that he has “formally requested that the SEC office and ESPN aggressively pursue an alternative solution for one or both kickoff times during these consecutive weeks” and said that he is “confident that there are not many other programs in the SEC that would be placed in a similar position.”
Late kickoffs are nothing new for Utah and other teams in the Western United States. TV networks, which have control over game times as part of billon-dollar agreements with conferences, want their airwaves to be full of football all day and night on Saturday. As a result, Western teams have become used to kicking off late at night.
Last year, Utah played in four games that kicked off at 8 p.m. MT or later.
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Isaac Hale, Deseret News
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