Early kickoff (again) for Georgia Tech

AJC photo by Hyosub Shin

AJC photo by Hyosub Shin

Georgia Tech will remain in the early time slot for its next game. The ACC and its televisin partners assigned Tech with a noon kickoff for its Oct. 29 homecoming game against Duke, the Yellow Jackets’ next game after their open date this week. The game will be broadcast on regional sports networks, including Fox Sports South in the Atlanta television market.

Including the season opener in Dublin against Boston College, the Duke game will be the sixth in eight games that will start at either noon or 12:30 p.m. The two exceptions were the 3 p.m. start for the Mercer game and the 7:30 p.m. Thursday night game against Clemson.

A school can request certain time slots from the ACC’s television partners, although they are under no obligation to honor them. In the past, Tech has asked for later starts for homecoming to accommodate the various pre-game activities surrounding the game. Tech did not make a request this year.

Whether due to the requests or other factors, Tech’s homecoming games have started at 3 p.m. or later every year since 2008. One reason is that the matchups have often been more compelling than this year’s game with Duke, which is 3-4.