Kickoff Times Announced for 2024 Kentucky Football Schedule

The 2024 Kentucky football season is a new era for the sport in many ways. The CFB Playoff is expanding to 12 teams as the SEC welcomes Texas and Oklahoma to the league and begins a new partnership with ESPN. These are big changes, but the latter is making a small positive change we’re seeing play out today.

For years the SEC game of the week was selected by CBS for the 3:30 pm EST kickoff. In order to make sure they got the best of the best, executives were not forced to make decisions on kickoff times until 12 days prior, giving traveling fans little time to prepare accordingly for road trips.

Now that ESPN holds the rights to every single game, the four-letter network is sharing kickoff times for all 12 games in June.

Today’s announcement is a welcome change, although it lacks some specifics. Following the first three weeks, each program has been given a time window for their games: Early (noon-1 pm), afternoon (3:30-4:30), or night (6-8 pm). ESPN has been given the option to flex some kickoff times between the afternoon and night.

There is one more new wrinkle to this schedule announcement. Big Noon Kickoff on Fox created some competition for ESPN in the early time slot, much to the chagrin of programs around the SEC. More big-time games were placed at noon, giving recruits less time to travel to campuses and limiting the time fans could tailgate. ESPN is working with schools to limit the amount of early kickoffs they will play in the fall of 2024.

2024 Kentucky Football Schedule

The 2024 Kentucky football schedule is not for the faint of heart. According to ESPN FPI, the Wildcats have the fourth-most difficult schedule in the country, with road trips to Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Texas. We now know when Kentucky will take the field this fall.

Unfortunately, it’s time to prepare for another Noon kickoff in The Grove. Also, allow me to reminder you one more time that “FLEX” means the game will be either an afternoon or a night game.

See kickoff times for the entire 2024 SEC football schedule.

Opponent	Time (EST)	Network	Date
Southern Miss	7:45 PM	SEC Network	Aug. 31
South Carolina	3:30 PM	ABC	Sept. 7
Georgia	7:30 PM	ABC	Sept. 14
Ohio	12:45 PM	SEC Network	Sept. 21
At Ole Miss	Noon	ABC or ESPN	Sept. 28
Vanderbilt	Flex		Oct. 12
At Florida	Flex		Oct. 19
Auburn	Night		Oct. 26
At Tennessee	Night		Nov. 2
Murray State	1:30 PM	ESPN+/SECN+	Nov. 16
At Texas	Flex		Nov. 23
Louisville	Flex		Nov. 30

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