The networks(mostly ESPN) don't "reward" game times. They are trying to maximize viewership across all of the game times. They don't decide to "reward" or "punish" any teams. If you were inside the meetings where they decide game times and they go against the objective of maximizing total viewership for the entire day, then you might could say "enough said" with respect to a lack of respect for GT. However, it looks like a three year old demanding a different toy to say: "I like their game time better... waah waah waah". They do not have every big game in the prime time slot and every non-interesting game in the noon slot.
On the first Saturday, the noon games for ESPN are:
- Villanova -- Temple
- James Madison -- NC State
- Coastal Carolina -- USCe
- Ole Miss -- Texas Tech
- Texas -- Maryland
- Oregon State -- Ohio State
- Furman -- Clemson
- Alcorn State -- GT
The 3:30 games are:
- Washington State -- Wyoming
- Austin Peay -- mutts
- Central Michigan -- Kentucky
- Washington -- Auburn
- Albany -- Pittsburgh
- Appalachian State -- Penn State
- Marshal -- Miami(OH)
The Prime Time games have Louisville -- Alabama and Michigan -- Notre Dame, but also include such great matchups as:
- Mercer -- Memphis
- Nicholls -- Kansas
- Central Arkansas -- Tulsa
The point I am trying to make is that they include high profile games, medium games, and games that will not be watched in all of the time slots. The networks do not care one bit about how the scheduling affects tailgating. They do not care if fans are hot, wet, cold, sunburned, etc. They don't even care about the expected ratings for any particular individual matchup(except the marquee games) only how the overall ratings will be for the entire day. They try to maximize television engagement, period.
