Jim Delaney Announces B1G to Start Having Friday Night Games

selmaborntidefan said:

I understand why (for example) Harvard might play on Friday night (esp if someone will broadcast it nationally a la ESPN).

I REALLY understand why the Pac 12 shows Thursday night games because so many folks back East head to bed when the Pac 12 game is on.


Why does the Big Ten think the need to do this?

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My very thought: Friday night is B12 and PAC 12 night simply because they can't compete on Saturday for viewers. Now the B1G wants a piece of the Friday night crowd. Hmmmmm.

First, the overall B1G product is pretty dull with the exception of UM, tOSU, Wisconsin and occasionally Nebraska. I might watch UM vs Nebraska on a Friday night, but am not going to watch The Rutgers University vs The Northwestern University on Friday night or any other time. IMO this is a bad move by the B1G and here's hoping they and ESPN lose their shirt on this deal. Can you imagine racing home on Friday afternoon after a hard week at work to watch The University of Maryland take on The University of Minnesota. No thanks, I'll stick with Hawaii 50 and reruns.

IMALOYAL1 said:

I did not read that they refused to play on Friday Night. They will just play 1 away game on Friday night. That to me is not a great deal of flexing.

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I believe PSU said they would not play a Friday night HOME game - they're basically saying, "We'll go on the road to Indiana, Purdue, or Illinois for TV, but we're not doing it here in Happy Valley."

I was wondering if you had commented on this. Why are they really doing it? Is it like I said and it's money or what?

B1GTide said:

B1G leadership is a joke. No news here other than Penn State being on the right side of an issue.

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JBama_in_PCOLA said:

I was wondering if you had commented on this. Why are they really doing it? Is it like I said and it's money or what?

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The B1G network is struggling this year, so yeah, it is about the $$$. It shows you that the conferences really don't care about gate attendance anymore. Friday games are impossible on fans because of the travel involved and the conflict of interest (HS football is HUGE in Ohio).

And forget doing this on Ohio State's campus on a Friday night. There would be no way that the city could handle the traffic.

yeah, thanks. So this is very foolish of them.

B1GTide said:

The B1G network is struggling this year, so yeah, it is about the $$$. It shows you that the conferences really don't care about gate attendance anymore. Friday games are impossible on fans because of the travel involved and the conflict of interest (HS football is HUGE in Ohio).

And forget doing this on Ohio State's campus on a Friday night. There would be no way that the city could handle the traffic.

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RTR91 said:

Somewhat surprising. Penn State issued this statement:

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Dang, I have to give Penn State some credit for something they did that was actually good for the game.

Friday night is for the high school kids. Let them have their night in the spotlight.

Con said:

Dang, I have to give Penn State some credit for something they did that was actually good for the game.

Friday night is for the high school kids. Let them have their night in the spotlight.

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The irony is that in this area of PA, high schools sometimes play football on Saturday night. Why can't these Yankees get their act together? Don't they know that Saturday is the holy day of college football?

I wish there was college football 7 days a week.

Elefantman said:

The irony is that in this area of PA, high schools sometimes play football on Saturday night. Why can't these Yankees get their act together? Don't they know that Saturday is the holy day of college football?

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When I lived up there, some games were played on Saturday morning. The reason was to prevent the potential for violence, for some rivalries, that had a history of that sort of nonsense.

From what I've seen basically every single B1G coach is against this and not happy about it. All complaining it's bad for recruiting.

JBama_in_PCOLA said:

I'm not sure how smart this is. Takes away from high school football...

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I thought B1G football was high school football. :conf2:

Oh, yes I did!