Any idea why today’s game was scheduled for night?
Was it in anticipation that a basketball game would be more likely in the day?
It’s not on SECN or ESPN, right?
Weather this afternoon looks phenomenal and would be great to play in.
Pretty sure the Hogs schedule all Saturday SEC home games at night unless TV picks up a game and wants it earlier. Or weather makes a time change necessary.
Nonconference Saturday games are in the afternoon, but once conference play begins they move to the evening. I believe it’s been this way for several years.
That being said, I’m honestly surprised they didn’t move today’s game up so fans could watch both games. Perhaps they tried to and Kentucky was not agreeable.
Uh, not really.
I have been a season ticket holder and rarely missed any Fayetteville game for the last 15 years. And I can say with certainty that Sat night conference games has been the exception rather than the rule.
I’m face, I have wondered why we did NOT play more Saturday night conference games. The Saturday games have generally been day games UNLESS they were selected for TV
Not like Kentucky has anything else to watch. 
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At our tailgate, we were just having a discussion about night games. It was the general consensus that there have been very few night games. Thursday and Friday games are at 6:30 by conference rule. Last year there were 2. Before that maybe 1 per year.
Especially Greasy Calapari
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Saturday night games may have been the exception years ago, but that’s no longer the case.
I mentioned two exceptions to playing on Saturday night: TV games and weather. There is one other important exception: When the series is played Thursday-Saturday (instead of Friday-Sunday), the Saturday game is normally in the afternoon. I assume that is pretty standard to allow the visiting team more time to get away when the series is over.
I just went back and looked at this year’s schedule and the ones from previous years that are listed on the athletic department’s website. Thankfully they still list the time of the games. This is what I found:
2022: Four of the five SEC home games on Saturdays this year are scheduled to be night games. (The exception is the Saturday game of a Thursday-Saturday series.)
2021: Last year, two of the games were played at night, and three were played in the afternoon. (But of those three, two were series played Thursday-Saturday, and the other was a doubleheader because of weather.)
2020: Covid/no conference games played
2019: Three Saturday games were in the evening and two were in the afternoon. (One of the two was shown on the SEC Network, so it was picked up for TV. The other one was the first conference series of the year.)
2018: Two Saturday games were played in the evening and three were played in the afternoon. (Two of the three played in the afternoon were picked up for TV on SEC Network or ESPN2, and the other was part of a Thursday-Saturday series AND a doubleheader because of weather.)
That’s as far back as the schedules go on the website.
So from those four seasons (including this year), 11 of the 20 SEC home series had the Saturday game as a night game and 9 of them played the Saturday game in the afternoon. (Of those nine, seven of the games fit one of the three exceptions I mentioned for TV, weather, or a Thursday-Saturday series.)
Hopefully Matt can tell us if there is truly any scheduling philosophy regarding the Saturday games, but from what I can tell, they are more often scheduled to be night games.
(And for the record, I think they should have moved today’s game to the afternoon to not conflict with the basketball team’s game tonight.)
Thanks for the work on looking that up
Can’t argue with the facts
Chalk it up to my aging brain
I waited to answer this until I got the information that confirmed my thoughts.
The answer is that Arkansas has changed its scheduling philosophies to tend toward fan behavior in the last four or five years. There used to be a lot of Saturday afternoon games, but they have found that attendance, excitement, etc., is elevated for Saturday night games. So unless TV picks up a Saturday game at Baum and puts it in an afternoon time slot, all of the Saturday games are going to be played at night.
The exception this year is the LSU game, which is a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series. I forgot to confirm this, but I think there are some rules about game times on the final day of a series, so that will be an afternoon game.
You also see some more flexibility in midweek game times, in particular later start times for Wednesday games. That has been made easier by the ability to schedule in-state teams that do not have as far of a drive back home.
As for why the Kentucky game time wasn’t changed Saturday night, there was never any real consideration given to it on such short notice. Plus, I think Kentucky would have had to have agreed to it.
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Thanks Matt!
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