Three hours on the wrong side of Boone Pickens Stadium in September is a bake. The field runs almost due east-west, the shade collects on the west end zone, and below is how much of a noon, 3:30 or night Oklahoma State kickoff every area spends in shade, ray-traced for this exact bowl.
Pick your game and kickoff. Watch the shade move across the bowl through the game.
Because the field runs almost due east-west, the afternoon sun tracks along the length of the field instead of across it. That flips the usual advice: neither sideline hides from the sun here. The shade collects behind the west end zone, where the lower rows spend about 52% of a 3:30 game in shade while the sidelines average far less (south 9%, north 10%).
Share of a full game spent in shade, by area, for a mid-September Saturday:
| Seats | Noon | 3:30 | 7:00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| South sideline, lower rows | 0% | 19% | 99% |
| South sideline, upper deck | 0% | 0% | 84% |
| North sideline, lower rows | 0% | 19% | 99% |
| North sideline, upper deck | 0% | 3% | 87% |
| East end zone, lower rows | 0% | 11% | 95% |
| East end zone, upper deck | 0% | 2% | 87% |
| West end zone, lower rows | 0% | 52% | 100% |
| West end zone, upper deck | 0% | 47% | 100% |
Read 100% as shaded from kickoff to final whistle. Every area drifts toward 100% for evening games as the sun drops.
| Seats | Game in shade | Reaches half shade |
|---|---|---|
| West end zone, lower rows | 52% | about 2 hours in |
| West end zone, mid level | 50% | about 2 hours in |
| West end zone, upper deck | 47% | about 2 hours in |
| South sideline, lower rows | 19% | about 3.5 hours in |
South sideline, upper deck sit in sun for 100% of a 3:30 game, and East end zone, upper deck sit in sun for 98% of a 3:30 game. Noon kickoffs start with the sun about 52 degrees high and nearly every open seat lit. You cannot buy full shade at noon here, only a head start: west end zone, lower rows gain it soonest.
At a 3:30 kickoff the sun stands about 47 degrees up in the southwest. Watch the clock, because shade here is a schedule: shade climbs the west end zone from the bottom up. The lower rows reach half shade about 2 hours in, the upper deck about 2 hours in. Most fans guess the upper deck shades first. Here it is backwards: the rake of the stands roughly matches the afternoon sun angle, so shadow pools at the front rows first and then climbs the bowl one row at a time. The south sideline, upper deck never reach half shade before the final whistle.
Night games solve the problem for you: at a 7:00 kickoff the sun is already down to about 7 degrees and sets during the first half, so the whole bowl converges on 100% shade. Nobody needs this page for a night kickoff.
Date matters as much as section. Take the same 3:30 kickoff in late October and the west end zone climbs from about 50% shade to about 70%, purely because the kickoff sun drops from 47 to 32 degrees. Every area benefits late in the season.
No. Boone Pickens Stadium is an open-air stadium: no dome, no full roof, and games are played under the open sky. How much sun your seat gets depends on the stands and the start time: shade builds from one side of the bowl as the game goes on. For your exact game, the free shade map shows which sections sit in shade at kickoff and how the shade moves.
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Every number here is produced by a 3D ray-traced model of this seating bowl plus the exact solar position for the dates and kickoffs shown, the same engine behind the live map. The model approximates the bowl as a continuous tiered ring, without overhangs, press boxes or section canopies, so read the percentages as a dependable ranking of which areas shade first, not a row-level guarantee. Independent tool; not affiliated with the NCAA or any school.
Same conference, same afternoon sun. Shade guides for the rest of the Big 12:
All 136 college football shade guides →
Every FBS stadium ranked by sun exposure, at seven kickoff times →