It becomes a weekly ritual of sorts during football season. Fans pester the media about it, players pester the coaches, media and coaches pester the athletic department, everyone asking the same perennial, impenetrable question: what time is kickoff?



“Mike Bohn doesn’t get to pick kickoff times,” said the University of Cincinnati athletic director, detached so much from the process that he even invoked the third person. “That’s the deal. And I can be upset and frustrated by it at times, same as our fans are, but that’s how it works.”



The vast majority of in-season scheduling for top-level collegiate football and basketball, at least in the short term, is not decided by the programs and universities, but rather the broadcast companies and television stations that pay millions and billions of dollars for the rights to air those games.



Take the Cincinnati Bearcats 2019 football schedule, which was released in early...