Indiana Football: A look at the first five released scheduled kickoff times

Part of the Indiana football kickoff times were released on Thursday, with a bit of disappointment for many Indiana fans.

Football season is getting closer and with that came the first couple of kickoff times announced for the Indiana football program.

For most Indiana fans, they will be met with disappointment as the first five games for the Hoosiers will be day games.

Released Thursday afternoon, here is the list of the first five game times for Indiana in 2019.

• Saturday, Aug. 31: Ball State vs. Indiana, Lucas Oil Stadium, Noon ET, CBS Sports Network
• Saturday, Sept. 7: Eastern Illinois at Indiana, 3:30 p.m. ET, BTN
• Saturday, Sept. 14: Ohio State at Indiana, Noon ET, Fox
• Saturday, Sept. 28: Indiana at Michigan State, 3:30 p.m. ET or 4 p.m. ET, network TBA
• Saturday, Oct. 12: Rutgers at Indiana (Homecoming), Noon ET, network TBA

The first part of this schedule that stands out the most is abundance of early games, despite having a couple of big matchups.

With two of their first five games coming against Big Ten opponents, both will be on national television with the Ohio State matchup on FOX and while the Michigan State game coverage is still up in the air, there is a good possibility it could land on ESPN.

In their season opener, which will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium, it is slightly disappointing that the matchup will be a Noon kickoff considering it is a matchup between two in-state teams. If it were at night or even a late afternoon game, the action around the stadium and city would be able to build up the game hype even more.

Furthermore, Indiana has a Noon kickoff for their Homecoming matchup against Rutgers, making it the third straight year that their Homecoming game will be at that time.

For students, alumni, and even parents of students who are coming into town that weekend or even for the day, that makes it’s always a difficult time to fit everything in before the game. As a former student myself, a 3:30 pm game was always the perfect time for Homecoming.

While the game against UConn has yet to have a time, it will take place on Sep 21 in Bloomington, making it five of their first six games in the state of Indiana.