Stanford's Shaw 'pissed at Fox' for season opener's early kickoff time
Stanford will begin its season Sept. 4 against Kansas State in Arlington, Texas, at noon ET, and Cardinal head coach David Shaw isn't pleased.
Shaw believes Fox Sports' decision to schedule the matchup in the early kickoff slot will put his West Coast team at a disadvantage.
"I am pissed at Fox for our kickoff time against Kansas State," Shaw told The Athletic's Stewart Mandel on Friday.
He added, "For Stanford in particular and Oregon (who play Ohio State at noon ET on Sept. 11.) to be going and playing in a different time zone, and give us an early kickoff, to me, is incredibly disrespectful.
"And it shows a lack of understanding of what we have to do and the way that time difference truly affects us. It shows a lack of care for our student-athletes."
Shaw suggested others in the Pac-12 are also upset with Fox's scheduling.
Oklahoma director Joe Castiglione aired similar concerns to Shaw's last week, saying his team was "bitterly disappointed" that it will play its Sept. 18 home game against Nebraska in Fox's Big Noon Kickoff window.
Fox's Big Noon package has been a success since it was launched in 2019. However, Shaw believes making scheduling decisions based solely on how best to capture audiences overlooks the impact on the health of players from West Coast teams.
"(Fox) can say whatever they want to say. I don't want to hear shit about, 'Oh, it's great ratings.' I don't care about the ratings," Shaw said, adding, "This is either complete disregard or lack of understanding how difficult it is to be a West Coast team that travels east and gets forced to play an early kickoff game."
He continued, "I'm not happy with Fox, and I don't care that they're not going to be happy with my comments. We have to start sticking up for ourselves as West Coast teams because we're going to get judged the same, but we're going to be playing against guys that get to sleep in their own beds, sleep in their own time zone, and wake up at 8:30 in the morning, while our guys are getting up at 6:30 in the morning and losing those two hours of sleep."