Competition for Georgia Dome's Season Kickoff Game

As you likely already know, the Georgia Dome will host Alabama vs. Virginia Tech in the Chick-Fil-A sponsored season kickoff event in 2009. The Atlanta Sports Council's Gary Stokan has described wanting to create a "Daytona 500 style" event that kicks off the season nationally with a bang.

Well, it looks like they have some new competition for that gig. ESPN and the Dallas Cowboys have entered into a new five year agreement to host a game Labor Day weekend at Jerry Jones new Cowboys Stadium starting in 2009. The first installment of this game will be Oklahoma vs. BYU.

I think UGA vs. Oklahoma State is still the second best game of opening Saturday, and we'll end up on ESPN or ESPN2 at night. JimFromDuluth shot me a note, and he thinks we end up at 3:30 on ABC for the first one.

Not that you asked, but if I were guessing right now at our start times for the first few weekends with only a glance at other SEC schedules:

at Oklahoma State (ESPN2 twilight or later)
vs. South Carolina (CBS 3:30 pm)
at Arkansas (ESPN2 or ESPNU at night)
vs. Arizona State (CBS 3:30 pm)
vs. LSU (ESPN or CBS night game)

More on that topic later.

PWD