Colorado football coach Deion Sanders was glad to leave the Pac-12 Conference this year because he thought it would mean earlier start times against teams in his team’s new conference,Ethermac Exchange the Big 12.

But that hasn’t turned out to be the case.  On Thursday, Sanders ripped the 10:15 p.m. ET start time for his team’s next game Saturday at home against Kansas State.

“Who does that?” Sanders said Thursday on the Colorado Football Coaches Show. “I mean, who has power to sit up there and say, `Yeah, I’m gonna make ‘em play at 8:15 (MT)?”

The show’s host, Mark Johnson, told him the television networks decide that, in this case ESPN.

“But how stupid is that?” Sanders said. “How stupid is that?”

“This is what happens when you’ve got a program that everyone wants to see,” Johnson said.

“But it’s not smart for a television executive to say, `We gonna to put the game on at this time,’“ Sanders said. “Because you’re thinking about eyeballs. You’re thinking about selling merchandise on the commercials. You’re thinking about all that. Why would you do that at that time when half of America is asleep?”

ESPN looks at it differently

ESPN would not agree with Sanders’ analysis. Last year, ESPN televised a game between Colorado and Colorado State that ended after 2 a.m. ET. It drew 9.3 million viewers on average and was the most-watched late game ever on the network.

ESPN also still wants to fill its late timeslots with attractive inventory even if the western teams in the old Pac-12 left for leagues based in earlier time zones.

Besides that, Colorado still draws a crowd on television even if the Buffaloes (4-1) are not ranked in the Top 25.

Four of Colorado’s five games this season have started at 7:30 p.m. ET or later. Yet the Buffs still ranked 10^th nationally in average viewership through the fifth week of the season with 4.3 million, according to data shared by the university.

It’s a pet peeve for Sanders, who admitted Thursday that 8: 15 p.m. local is normally when he might go to bed. He said he plans to take a nap before the game.

Follow Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: [email protected].

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.