Northern Illinois will open its season against Grambling State at 3 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday morning, and the strange start time has already turned the first game into a scheduling puzzle. Matt Majkrzak is treating it like a Sunday game, even though it lands in the middle of the night during the Field of 68 Tip-off Marathon in Rock Hill, S.C.
That matters because the opener is not just early; it is part of an eight-game event split between two venues, with the clock shaping nearly everything the teams do before they reach the floor. Majkrzak has never coached a game at 3 a.m. before, and Northern Illinois is trying to stay as close as possible to its normal routine while still accounting for a flight Friday at noon, a late landing in South Carolina and practice set for 11:30 p.m. that same night.
The plan is built around staying awake when most teams would be asleep. Majkrzak said the players have to be up at 8 a.m. for the Friday flight, then wants them awake until 4 a.m. after practice so their bodies can adjust to the overnight schedule. The team has no activities on Saturday until 1 p.m., and he wants the players to sleep from 4 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday before a 5 p.m. practice on Saturday and a 5 p.m. shootaround on Sunday.
He is trying not to overdo the adjustment. The coach said the biggest thing is not overthinking it and not putting doubt in the players’ minds. If the plan works, the odd start time becomes less of a shock and more of a late-night game with an early whistle, even if the timing still forces everyone involved to reshuffle a normal opening-week rhythm.
Merrimack is facing the same overnight problem from the other side of the event. Joe Gallo said his team’s biggest challenge is getting players to sleep around 7 p.m. on Sunday night, and he is aiming for a 3 a.m. wake-up with a 3:15 or 3:30 a.m. team meal. He said Merrimack would usually eat four hours before the game, but the setup may push players onto the floor much later than usual, and he expects the team may not get to the arena until 4:30 or 4:45.
Gallo had planned a dry run before the season but scrapped it, choosing instead to manage the trip with practice timing and hotel routines. Merrimack is scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. practice on Saturday before a 2:30 p.m. flight from Boston to Charlotte, then has a 9:25 a.m. practice slot Sunday morning in Rock Hill. The unusual timing is forcing both teams into a compressed window, and Monday’s 3 a.m. tipoff will show whether those adjustments are enough to make a season opener feel even remotely normal.
