Houston Cougars frustrated with lack of evening TV times: ‘Our team has earned it’

The No. 20 Houston football team believes they’ve earned the right to play under the lights in primetime, especially on a Saturday after an important event in their stadium Friday night.

ESPN thought differently and scheduled their Oct. 3 game against UCF for 11:00 a.m. on ESPN2 instead.

University of Houston AD Eddie Nuñez shared his frustration over the TV time with Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle, saying that the school spent a year working with the Big 12 and its TV partners (ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT Sports) to ensure they’d have an evening kickoff for that game, in part to give them time to prep TDECU Stadium following a Hall of Honor event there on Friday night. Alas, it didn’t happen.

“An early game would make it very difficult for everybody to turn around with everything else we’ve got going on,” Nuñez said. “We’ve also worked with UCF on this for over six months. So, it’s unfortunate. I just want to make sure that our fans know that we will continue to work with the conference office and our television partners to get them to understand that it’s important to not have every game be a day game. Our team has earned it. They are a Top 20 program, and they should have the opportunity to provide our fans with night games.”

Houston had to contend with several issues. First, TV inventory shrinks this weekend with the arrival of the MLB playoffs, which will eat up a coveted Fox afternoon slot. Second, and most importantly, it was ultimately the networks’ decision, and there likely wasn’t much they or the conference could do to fight it.

Still, it’s part of a larger frustration for the Big 12 school, which had only one primetime home game in 2025 (a 6 p.m. start vs. Texas Tech) and has had only six conference home games at night since joining in 2023. The school wants more evening kickoffs to give fans more opportunities for things like tailgates and fireworks.

“We’ve earned the opportunity for us to be able to host games at night, and we should be given that opportunity more with our television partners finding that ability to do so,” Nuñez said.

It probably won’t make Houston feel much better, but it’s worth noting that even some of the biggest programs in the country don’t get their way when it comes to TV times, and if networks like Fox and ESPN think it’s better to play a game at 11 a.m. or noon, they’re gonna do it whether you want it or not (with some exceptions).

Houston’s next game, an October 10 road tilt against Kansas State, is set for a 2:30 p.m. kick on Fox. However, they do have an Oct. 19 home game against No. 19 Oklahoma State looming. That could be exactly the kind of showdown deemed primetime-worthy. Or, if Fox gets it, noon-worthy.