Notre Dame kicks off at 2:30pm ET/ 1:30 CT/ 12:30 MT/ 11:30 PT/ 8:30 HT against Vanderbilt; Fans at Stadium also need sunscreen for high-UV day

Notre Dame’s kickoffs for afternoon home games move up an hour, to 2:30 P.M. local time, starting with their contest against Vanderbilt on NBC and the Notre Dame Football Radio Network.

(Of course, big-money media has become so addicted to Notre Dame football in prime time, they still have as many home night games as afternoon games. They do have an additional Notre Dame-hosted afternoon game in the New York area.)

Next week, on the road in Winston-Salem, the kick-off against Wake Forest is at noon ET.

The mid-day starts are a bit of “a blast from the past.” Not that many decades ago, it was not uncommon to see 12:30 P.M.  start times.

Recall that the original configuration of Notre Dame Stadium did not even include lights.

It was not until the 1980s that the first night game was held in The House That Rockne Built, using portable lights that were trucked in.

Additionally complicating timing was that fact that, for years, Indiana did not change their clocks. So, up until about a decade ago, for the first half of the fall, Notre Dame was on Chicago time, while for the second half of the fall they were on New York time, because Chicago, New York and everybody else would “spring forward and fall back” with the clocks while Indiana basically did not.

Kick-off against the Commodores on Saturday, Sept. 15, will be a little after 2:30 P.M. ET/ 1:30 CT, 12:30 MT, 11:30 PT and 8:30 HT. (If you live in Arizona, just check the local listings ….)

Early fall mid-day starts, in warm sunny weather, also can have UV- and sunscreen-related implications.  Notre Dame is predicted to have a somewhat high UV day, i.e., for UV rays, calling for sunscreen, especially if people will not be wearing much cover given the heat. [see: https://uv.willyweather.com/in/st-joseph-county/notre-dame.html]