A group of people hold signs Monday afternoon on Wescoe Beach on the Kansas University campus to protest Saturday's KU men's basketball game being scheduled in conflict with the Kansas democratic caucuses. About 15 protestors gathered and chanted Game

The cable sports network ESPN said Monday that it did not know about the Kansas presidential caucuses when it scheduled KU’s final regular season game for 3 p.m. Saturday and that it is too late now to change its broadcasting plans.

“Working with the Big 12 Conference, we set the time for ESPN’s national telecast of Iowa State at Kansas, per the normal scheduling process,” an ESPN spokesperson said via email. “Due to other live national game commitments on ESPN Saturday, we are unable to move the telecast time.”

The tipoff time of the game has created a political controversy because it directly conflicts with the Kansas Democratic presidential caucuses, which begin at the same time.

That may be an inconvenience for KU students and other fans, who now have to choose between participating in the Democratic caucuses or cheering for their college team.

But it leaves no choice for the students and employees who are required to be at the game, from the school’s band and cheerleaders, to the people who take tickets and work at concession stands, not to mention the players and coaching staffs themselves.

Although Kansas is a solidly Republican state, there are about 427,000 registered Democrats in the state, including roughly 27,000 in Douglas County, where Democrats make up more than a third of all registered voters.

Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said KU had no say in the timing of the game because, under terms of a contract with ESPN, the cable network has sole authority to set the times of games it broadcasts.

“The Big 12 Conference, of which we’re a member, has a contract with ESPN,” Marchiony said. “That contract with ESPN gives them the right to assign game times. So that’s how the process works.”

Marchiony also said that KU expressed its concerns about the scheduling conflict, but to no avail.

“They just politely declined to change the time of the game,” he said.

The scheduling conflict has stirred controversy on campus, where more than a dozen students and employees took to Wescoe Beach Monday afternoon to protest the decision, chanting “Game change, let us vote.”

KU student Dan Walker, a senior from Overland Park, helped organize the protest and the “KU Game Change for the Caucus” Facebook page.

“KU is a public institution that really does have a moral obligation,” he said. “And it’s just being completely ignored.”

Walker said KU’s corporate agreement with ESPN should not be more important than that moral obligation. He said the basketball game conflicting with the Democratic caucus time was particularly unfair to KU employees who have to work during the game, as well as other community members such as servers at popular game-watching restaurants and bars.

“This important public event is something people need to get to, and they shouldn’t have to choose,” Walker said.

Both the Republican and Democratic state parties have had their respective presidential caucus dates set for months. And because caucuses are operated by the parties themselves, rather than by the state, the parties long ago had to reserve time in school gymnasiums, libraries, municipal buildings and other facilities around the state.

And while the date of KU’s game against Iowa State has been set since the schedule was announced last year, ESPN did not settle on the exact time of the game until Feb. 19.

Most Republican caucuses in the state allow voting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., giving voters in those caucuses time to cast their ballots and still catch the game.

But the rules of the Kansas Democratic Party are more complicated. Those voters need to be registered and in place before 3 p.m. when the actual caucusing begins. That’s the same time as the scheduled tipoff in the KU-Iowa State game.

Caucus rules for the Democrats in Kansas also do not allow people to cast advance or absentee ballots. Anyone wishing to participate must be physically present at the caucus site at the scheduled time.

Until last year, Kansas law provided for primary elections in presidential years, but the state hasn’t actually conducted presidential primaries since 1992. Since then, Kansas lawmakers have routinely declined to provide the estimated $2 million it would cost to hold a presidential primary, and last year they repealed the statute authorizing the primaries.