Oklahoma State Catches a Game Time Break for Trip to West Virginia
STILLWATER – The Big 12 Conference television partners made their selections on Monday, Oct. 9 for the Big 12 football games on Saturday, Oct. 21 and the Oklahoma State Cowboys next foray away from Stillwater will be that day to Morgantown W.V. and a game with the Mountaineers. I’m going to credit the Cowboys 29-21 win over Kansas State reintroducing themselves as a television attraction to the fact that ESPN picked up the Pokes at the Mountaineers for a 2:30 central and a 3:30 local time kick at Milan Puskar Stadium.
How important is that time at West Virginia. It is huge. Anything but a night time kickoff is preferred. West Virginia is unbeaten (3-0) at home this season. The 56-17 win over Duquesne and the 17-6 win over Pittsburgh were both night kickoffs.
West Virginia has a 20-5 prime time record on weeknights and they have created some of their favorite football memories in prime time games on Saturday as well. The last time the Cowboys played West Virginia in a night game at Morgantown was a 33-26 overtime win in 2015.
Why the need to avoid night games at West Virginia. Like most college football crowds the longer they get to tailgate and “lubricate” on a Saturday before kickoff then the wilder the atmosphere. That is especially true with the Mountaineers crowds. They are very loud and very excited for those night games at Milan Puskar.
The rest of the Big 12 schedule for Oct. 21 is:
UCF at Oklahoma 11 a.m. on ABC
Baylor at Cincinnati 11 a.m. on ESPN+
Texas at Houston 3 p.m. on FOX
Texas Tech at BYU 6 p.m. on FS1
TCU at Kansas State 6 p.m. on ESPN2