Game time

IRVING, Texas — Missouri players won’t be able to roll out of their beds, sprawl out on a couch and kill a whole day watching six bowl games this New Year’s Day.

The Cotton Bowl kicks off at 10:40 Tuesday in Dallas.

“I won’t be sleeping in this year,” linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said.

Players’ rooms were set to be checked at 9:30 p.m. Monday, and they are scheduled to get up at around 6 a.m. today, Weatherspoon said.

The Cotton Bowl kicked off at the same time last year. But Weatherspoon didn’t watch it.

“I didn’t wake up in time to see it,” he said.

Defensive tackle Lorenzo Williams got up during halftime last year, sometime between noon and 1 p.m. Like families across the nation, he sat with his mother on the couch and watched football.

“Did you have people bringing you any adult beverages?” a reporter asked.

“I don’t handle adult beverages at all,” Williams said, chuckling.

The early kickoff is not too foreign to the Tigers this season. Their games against Texas A&M and Kansas State both started at 11:40 a.m.

Marooned in their rooms, players won’t be tempted to turn on the TV to spy on revelers in Times Square.

“You got to cut that TV off and try to focus,” Weatherspoon said. “I try to visualize things when I’m headed to bed, and then I just pass out.”