BYU-Utah Holy War start time seen as ungodly by college football world

Utah Utes quarterback Devon Dampier. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

BYU-Utah Holy War start time seen as ungodly by college football world

By Ty Bronicel | Last updated Oct 27, 2026 1:57 PM ET

Utah and BYU's football teams will get an early wake-up call Saturday before they battle in college football's Holy War.

Kickoff for the highly anticipated Nov. 7 clash of rivals in Salt Lake City is set for noon ET/9 a.m. PT.

Fans not happy with kickoff time

Fans on both sides are outraged that the potential top-10 meeting between the fifth-ranked Utes (7-0, 4-0 in Big 12 play) and ninth-ranked Cougars (6-1, 3-1) is set for such an early kickoff.

The anger is justified considering that if Utah wins at Cincinnati this Saturday and BYU takes care of Arizona State at home — both are favored — this Holy War would be the first matchup in rivalry history featuring two top-10 teams.

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Below is a taste of some tweets. If you want more from each team's official X accounts, here's BYU's and Utah's.

10 AM local for Holy War is BRUTAL… neither team will play its best quality football.

This is a travesty https://t.co/TYYQVLAeRP
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) October 26, 2026

The biggest Big 12 game of the year… and they give them a 10 am kickoff https://t.co/tsPv98CCxf
— Bordeaux (@bordeauxyt) October 26, 2026

Gonna need some Monster Energy to stay up late for this Big XII game.

Wait a minute… https://t.co/OFLny5TZa3
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) October 26, 2026

With big games like Ohio State-Michigan and Oklahoma-Texas, they’ll often use the excuse that they don’t want fans to get too drunk and rowdy for why it’s an early game.

That’s not an issue here, absolutely no reason for this. https://t.co/bdnD1AnhQV
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 26, 2026

criminal https://t.co/2nBRVz43mw
— parker fleming (@statsowar) October 26, 2026

Experts also weigh in on early start — one summed it up perfectly

The Utah-BYU Holy War game will be a 10 am local kickoff. That is just brutal for fans for a likely top-10 matchup.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) October 26, 2026

Real church hours for The Holy War. https://t.co/fdSEXFs2WV
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 26, 2026

103rd Holy War will be great regardless

In closing, reporter Josh Furlong summed up the Holy War start time correctly.

Yikes! A 10 a.m. game? Either way, it’s going to be an electric environment on a great broadcast network.
— Josh Furlong (@Josh_Furlong) October 26, 2026

Amen.

Ty Bronicel

Ty Bronicel is a veteran sports writer/editor/blogger with over 30 years of experience creating web content and has worked for world-renowned companies such as MSN, Yahoo, USA Today, and ESPN. He graduated from the University of Utah (Go Utes!) and is a Salt Lake City native who currently lives in the Beehive State. His expertise is movies and streaming shows, college football, NBA, and college basketball

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