BYU is willing to play on Sunday

BYU Campus

With the scheduling of the BYU-New Mexico State on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 8:15 PM Mountain Time BYU is conceding the fact they could possibly play on Sunday. How so? While the average NCAA college football game is between 3 hours and 3 hours and 15 minutes they routinely go well over that. BYU is opening itself up to a probability, I would guess less than 5%, that it will still be playing past midnight. Twice this season they've come close with a 3 hour 42 minute game against Utah and a 3 hour 34 minute game against TCU.

Here are some BYU games from the past 20 years that all would have broken the "sabbath" for BYU.

Date Opponent Time Result
11/28/09 vs. Utah 3:54 W, 26-23
9/15/07 vs. Tulsa 3:57 L, 47-55
9/24/05 vs. TCU 4:42 L, 50-51
10/22/05 vs. Notre Dame 3:46 L, 23-49
10/29/05 vs. Air Force 3:52 W, 62-41
11/5/05 vs. UNLV 3:50 W, 55-14
11/19/05 vs. Utah 4:15 L, 34-41
12/22/05 vs California 3:49 L, 28-35
9/6/02 vs. Hawaii 4:00 W, 35-32
12/8/01 at Hawaii 4:24 L, 45-72
10/8/94 at Fresno State 3:54 W, 32-30
11/20/93 vs. Utah 3:53 L, 31-34
9/4/93 at New Mexico 3:50 W, 34-31
10/30/93 at Utah State 3:50 L, 56-58
11/16/91 at San Diego State 3:54 T, 52-52

I wonder what the contingency is it the game approaches midnight? Forfeit? What about the employees at Lavell Edwards Stadium? I can't imagine that they'll be finished with all their work by midnight. Is this all just to make ESPN happy with their TV contract?