NORMAN — OU tried and tried and tried to ensure this season’s football meeting with Nebraska — the 50th anniversary celebration of the 1971 “Game of the Century” — would be played at sometime, anytime, other than at 11 a.m.

But the Sooners’ efforts came up short, with Fox announcing the Sept. 18 game in Norman would indeed kickoff in the morning.

Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione said he felt “deep disappointment” that the game would begin in that spot.

Castiglione, speaking after an OU Board of Regents meeting Thursday, said he hoped to avoid the early kickoff for a number of reasons — being able to fit in all the pregame celebrations planned to honor the history of not only the 1971 game but also the historic series with the Cornhuskers, the fan experience, and also recruiting.

“We have this very unique tug of war going on because of what we’re trying to do to protect a game day,” Castiglione said. “It’s not just drive over, go to the game, get in the car, and go home. For some it might be that, but there are people that want to enjoy the whole day that they can around the game.

“It just shortens that timeframe when the games are at 11.”

In recent years, the 11 a.m. window has become one of the marquee spots on the college football schedule and the Sooners have played in quite a few of those games as television networks have valued grabbing viewers early and hoping to hang onto them throughout the day.

“We know we have to do our share to be a good partner with the Big 12 and a good partner within these television institutions that every institutions signed,” Castiglione said. “So we get the rights the partners acquired and they’re exercising their rights, as difficult as the result is.

“Everybody’s trying to fight for what they want in this and that’s why I expressed my concern. But at the end of the day, everybody did what they could do and the game’s been set so now we’re going to make the best of it.”

It was also announced Thursday that OU’s Sept. 4 season opener at Tulane would also kick off at 11 a.m. and be broadcast on ABC.

Castiglione also said that two games that had been scheduled for last year — a home game against Tennessee that was to kick off a home-and-home series and a game against Army at West Point that was the second of a home-and-home arrangement — had been rescheduled.

Castiglione did not disclose dates for those meetings, other than saying they were years into the future.

Contracts for both games are being finalized, Castiglione said.

Also Thursday, the regents approved contracts for new men’s basketball coach Porter Moser, women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk and their assistants as well as extensions for football assistant coaches.

Moser’s deal is for six years, starting at $2.8 million, plus a $400,000 annual stay benefit payable April 1.

Baranczyk’s deal is for five years beginning at $625,000.

The contracts for assistant football coaches Bill Bedenbaugh, Jamar Cain, Roy Manning, DeMarco Murray, Dennis Simmons and Calvin Thibodeaux were extended through the 2022 season while defensive coordinator Alex Grinch’s contract was extended through the 2023 season.

Co-offensive coordinator and inside receivers coach Cale Gundy was one of two football assistants getting raises, with Gundy’s salary jumping up $20,000 along with an extension through the 2022 season.

Assistant head coach and outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons was given a $90,000 raise and extended through the 2023 season.

Softball coach Patty Gasso’s contract was extended through the 2028 season while baseball coach Skip Johnson’s contract was extended through the 2025 season.

Women’s gymnastics coach K.J. Kindler’s contract was extended through 2027, among other changes.