This Friday, the Florida Gators will take on Georgia in the Softball Super Regionals in game one of a three-game series to try and punch a ticket to the Women's College World Series.
While the rest of the softball world might be sleeping on their series, it has value for both fanbases given it's a Florida-Georgia game and given that Georgia has previously upset Florida twice in the Super Regional round.
But fans hoping to watch game one on Friday, we are going to need to hope they are not working as TV has dictated an extremely inconvenient start time for both Florida and Georgia fans.
Florida Gator fans will need to miss work to watch Super Regionals
The NCAA announced the start times for Super Regionals, and Florida is going to take on Georgia at 11 AM on Friday.
11, in the morning, on a work day, for a series that determines who goes to the WCWS.
Great work NCAA, great work.
Now, there are a number of fans who might take Friday off going into the extended Memorial Day weekend, and yes, it is true that March Madness has games start at 12 PM on a workday, so softball is not alone in doing something like this.
It still doesn't mean it's a good thing for fans who have followed the program all year.
The early start time is so that ESPN can have programming all day long. At 1 PM is South Carolina vs. UCLA, at 3 PM is FSU vs. Texas Tech, at 5 PM is Oklahoma vs. Alabama, and at 7 PM is Tennessee vs. Nebraska. There are also games starting at 8, 9, and 10 PM.
So, the super-dedicated fan who has the ability to take off work on Friday can sit back and watch a full 13 hours of softball if they want to.
But part of the charm and allure of March Madness is when games start overlapping and you get one crazy finish after another.
In the end, all this won't have any real impact on the series itself. But it is a missed opportunity to create a truly special weekend in Gainesville for fans who, instead, will have to take PTO just to be able to watch on Friday.