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BIG TEN on Friday Nights? Oh yes starting in 2017.


mjp28

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The Big Ten will play six Friday night football games a year starting in 2017 and continuing through at least 2022, the conference announced Wednesday.

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/big-ten-play-friday-night-games-year-starting-43256010

 

Not every school wants to host those games, though.

 

The Friday night games are being added to the conference's television agreements with ESPN/ABC and Fox, Senior Associate Commissioner Mark Rudner said. No team will play more than one Friday night home game a year.

 

The Big Ten already has had Friday night games on Labor Day weekend. Those games will continue and be counted among the six each year. Iowa and Nebraska play each other the day after Thanksgiving in a game that won't count among the six.

 

Penn State announced it wouldn't play at home on a Friday night, and Michigan has said no to playing home or away.

 

"We fully support the Big Ten's scheduling decisions as well as conference peers who are able to play on Friday nights," Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said. "With our large fan base, Michigan fans and alumni travel significant distances to attend games, making Saturdays our preferred day for all football games."

 

Ohio State is willing to host once every three years, but only when the Friday falls during fall break on the academic calendar. Iowa, Michigan State and Rutgers don't want to host except on Labor Day weekend. Wisconsin would be open to playing at home on Labor Day weekend in "selected years," athletic director Barry Alvarez said.

 

Nebraska and Indiana have agreed to host once every three years. Maryland had no comment.

 

"It does create additional opportunities for certain programs that heretofore have not had that kind of national prime-time exposure on Saturday night to maybe have that on Friday night," Rudner said.

 

Among those are Illinois, Northwestern and Purdue, which say they're on board with hosting Friday night games.

 

"There are traditionalists who say Friday is for high school football, but if we can get our product out there on national television when all eyes are on us, that's great for Purdue," Boilermakers spokesman Matthew Rector said.

 

Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle wrote in an email to The Associated Press, "We will play the schedule assigned to us by the Big Ten."

 

The Big Ten plans to announce the 2017 Friday night schedule within the next four to seven days.

 

To give schools adequate time to address logistical challenges, the Friday night games will be announced in early October of the preceding year. The 2018 Friday games, for example, will be announced in October 2017.

 

Friday night college football has become more common in recent years. There were 53 games on that night in 2014, 63 in 2015 and 65 this year. The Big 12, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference are among the leagues that play some games on Fridays.......continued. ..... :o

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GOOD IDEA OR NOT?

 

Is nothing sacred anymore?

 

So Friday night lights in high school football is being further eroded, high school game attendance is already way down in many former hotbed areas.

 

The big dog NFL viewership numbers are being questioned reasons like over-saturation of games and too much media exposure everywhere.

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We only need one of those data points to know the rest.

Not true. I disagreed with a lot of things our old AD did.

 

 

What would yours be? "Bama is against it. So the SEC is against it. So I'm against it"?

 

 

And really, however you want to look at it, it's a bad idea. We're not the MAC. We don't need the off day to get viewes

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Bad idea. Friday nights are for high school football.

Our local NBC TV station has a Friday night 15 minute high school football highlight and scores show, I'm shocked how empty many or sometimes most of the stands are!

 

Where are the kids, parents and boosters? Some schools have even recently updated or even rebuilt their facilities and still whole sections are empty. Big deal? Yes it is in many ways.

 

Now add 6 B1G games on Fridays with 12 teams and there are hundreds or better yet thousands of people who might choose to stay home and watch a game rather than going out to support the kids and sports programs.

 

I wondered when this was going to happen in the Midwest well it starts in 2017.

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Our local NBC TV station has a Friday night 15 minute high school football highlight and scores show, I'm shocked how empty many or sometimes most of the stands are!

 

Where are the kids, parents and boosters? Some schools have even recently updated or even rebuilt their facilities and still whole sections are empty. Big deal? Yes it is in many ways.

 

Now add 6 B1G games on Fridays with 12 teams and there are hundreds or better yet thousands of people who might choose to stay home and watch a game rather than going out to support the kids and sports programs.

 

I wondered when this was going to happen in the Midwest well it starts in 2017.

I just can't see OSU wanting to host or play on Friday. They will, just to be a good conference member I suppose.

 

My perception could be totally wrong, but I always thought Ohio, Pennsylvania, & Texas were the most rabid high school football states.

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I just can't see OSU wanting to host or play on Friday. They will, just to be a good conference member I suppose.

 

My perception could be totally wrong, but I always thought Ohio, Pennsylvania, & Texas were the most rabid high school football states.

 

When ESPN years back really created the "non Saturday" NCAA football games on Thursday then Tuesday and now virtually seven days (looking at my Vegas Rotation sheet, TU, WED, TH, FRI, SAT this week). Well some teams jumped on it because they became THE exclusive game on TV and it worked! And their athletic departments collected a lot of money to upgrade their programs and it spread.

 

Remember Boise State and VT early on? They had a great run early on but now everyone wants a piece of this pie and it's not really a big deal now.

 

And yes PA, OH and TX are rabid high school states now along with FLA and CAL among others. So when will this NFL, NCAA, High School (yes they play play on national television too) get over saturated?

 

It's really a shame in a way but it's here now.

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Bad idea. Friday nights are for high school football.

 

I don't know what the high school football climate is like in Big 10 country, but it's as crazy here as anywhere, and a very small portion of football fans go to HS games.

 

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MAC and PAC schools could use this.

 

OSU and Michigan are getting viewers regardless.

 

Good thing there are other schools in the conference then. It's 6 games a year. These schools will get one every other year at most. Not exactly the end of the world.

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Good thing there are other schools in the conference then. It's 6 games a year. These schools will get one every other year at most. Not exactly the end of the world.

Yes maybe for now (depending on ratings) but it will add to an already creeping involvement of college into Friday nights.

 

.....There were 53 games on that night in 2014, 63 in 2015 and 65 this year. The Big 12, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference are among the leagues that play some games on Fridays.....

 

So the 65 becomes 71 and that's if there aren't more by other conferences or independents getting into Friday nights or current ones increasing the number of games.

 

Four D-1A games this past *Friday *ACTUALLY THURSDAY alone including OKL/IOWA ST and UCLA/COL and all on TV. I could easily keep Friday's for high school. .....but I'm not pulling down the hundreds of thousands of dollars involved either. ;)

 

*Friday there were three D-1A games including Boise State

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Both those games were on Thursday, which is the better day for this.

Yes you're correct I was on the wrong line.

 

Tues 2, Wed 1, Thur 4, Fri 3 for 10 D-1A non Saturday games....I believe the NCAA Thursday games might be cutting into the Thursday NFL games a little bit, 5 last Thursday!

 

Personally I don't like Thursday NFL games either it does water down the whole product. .....oh and don't miss the BROWNS vs Ravens Game this Thursday. :huh:

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