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.
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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: