His final campaign behind him, Gov. Mark Dayton plans a battle next year over a minor but very personal issue: the start time for University of Minnesota football games.

“They talk about the concern about attendance at the Gopher games — they start them at 11 o’clock in the morning,” Dayton said Tuesday in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “I’m going to propose that we pass a law that no (Division I FBS) football game in Minnesota can start before noon.”

Dayton said 11 a.m. kickoffs — as the Gophers had for home games this year against Northwestern, Purdue, Iowa and Ohio State — are just too early.

“If you want to tailgate, you have to be there by 9 a.m.,” Dayton said. “Most students I don’t think are awake at 9 a.m.”

The culprit for the start times is the national TV schedule, a big revenue source for football programs like Minnesota’s. Dayton blamed TV for the flexible start times, which allows networks to pick and choose matchups based on the teams’ recent performances.

“(When) I grew up and went to Gopher games, they started at 1 or 1:30 … and you knew that for the whole season, so you blocked out those days,” Dayton said. “Now, it’s about, ‘What time does TV want to put us on?’ It’s all driven by television and the dollars involved there.”

Chris Werle, an associate athletic director for the University of Minnesota, declined to comment Tuesday, saying the university wanted to learn more about the proposal.

A message to the NCAA was not immediately returned.

Dayton said his major focus this session will be the budget, transportation funding and education — not football start times. But he said he has long had a passion to take on the issue.

“I’ve wanted to do this for 10 years,” he said. “I got talked out of it every year I was a (U.S.) senator, then I got talked out of it when I was having to face re-election eventually.”

Dayton acknowledged that his proposal might go down in flames, but said he would at least “get the discussion going.”

And if people like his idea, Dayton said, he would think about taking it national.

“I’ll see if the Big Ten state governors get interested,” he said.