Friday Night B1G Football in 2017
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-big-ten-friday-night-ga…
Delany said the league is reluctant to ask schools with giant seating capacities to host Friday night games, so don’t expect games to be played at Ohio State or Penn State.
And Michigan is flat-out saying no to Friday night games, both home and road. Delany said he believes the school simply prefers Saturday games for “consistency of presentation.”
Delany said there will be three conference games and three non-league games in September and October. No team will play more than twice.
When is this clown retiring?
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^
It is for the lengthof the new TV contract, but UM said no to Friday's both home and road, and from what Delaney said, it doesn't look like there is an objection to it.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:47 PM ^
Simple math says we shouldn't get too many. Three non-conference and three conference games a year, so if we aren't hosting, we're already down to just three conference game opportunities a year. There are 63 conference games a year, 4 or 5 of which will be home games and not on Friday night. Another one which will be at PSU or OSU, and not on Friday night. So you're looking at three potential road games out of 50 or so potential games to be aired on Friday night. Those aren't great odds.
Plus, if Harbaugh has the program consistently where we expect it to be, I'd think the networks would continue to prefer that we play on Saturdays.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:26 PM ^
fear is that expanding the week-day game concept will lead to NFL-like over-saturation. There are already too many college games on Thursday and Friday night, five games per night on some occassions. I do think that the NFL scheduling format has had a negative impact on the product all things considered, and from here on out this season, college football is played basically every night. I like a little mid-week MACtion and a good Thursday night game but they should start to reel this in.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:29 PM ^
Agree. Football is great in part because of scarcity.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:31 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 6:04 PM ^
Capacity may also be relevant for traffic purposes too, as game traffic would compete with work traffic and larger capacity stadiums would make that more of an issue.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:19 PM ^
I like it. MOAR DAYZ OF FURTBAWRL
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:20 PM ^
Is this the MAC? Maybe Purdue can play on Friday nights in an attempt to get someone, anyone to watch Purdue football but I don't want to see Michigan doing it. Good job Warde
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^
Except this is going to piss off the high schools in Purdue's footprint. While it isn't great football those schools are playing, they all sell out their stadiums. Does that continue to happen if Purdue is playing at the same time? Do those coaches continue to tell their players to look at other schools, as they've been doing for the last several years? Just a terrible idea.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 6:59 PM ^
If so, I gather the high schools are winning
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:21 PM ^
This was inevitable with the FOX contract that starts next year. FOX only has the main channel plus FS1. (They also have FS2, which is essentially not on any cable packages, plus the regional FSNs, which the Big Ten does not consider part of their package).
There aren't enough timeslots on FOX & FS1 on Saturday for them to fulfill all of their commitments, so they have to make conferences play on "off" nights.
November 2nd, 2016 at 8:08 PM ^
Maybe. Maybe not. I doubt there will be any games on FS2, especially in year one of the contract. Fox needs the B1G to give them great ratings in order to convince the cable networks to upgrade the basic cable packages to include FS2. I don't think the B1G will agree to any games on FS2 until that happens, which could be as early as year two or three of the new contract depending on the ratings results (which will soar with the addition of the B1G). Fox is using the B1G in an attempt to bridge the gap between them and ESPN.
Remember, ESPN has the second half of the rights to the TV contract. Each network will cover 25 games, with the BTN picking up the remainder of the games left. With Ohio State being the only big program (ok, MSU too) on board with this so far, I don't think Fox and ESPN will jump at the chance to broadcast Rutgers vs Minnesota. I have a feeling a good portion of these games will fall to the BTN (exception of MSU).
November 3rd, 2016 at 1:03 PM ^
I didn't think I implied that any games would be on FS2; as a matter of fact, I thought I did the opposite. Sorry it wasn't more clear.
I was saying that I can't really see how FOX & FS1 can broadcast 25 Big Ten games, in addition to their B12 and P12 obligations, just using Saturday timeslots. That leaves some games to leak into other days on FS1. Perhaps you are right about BTN, though. We will see.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:22 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^
Friday is my drinking and poker night. Guess I'll have to miss Rutgers vs. Illinois the next 5 years.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:22 PM ^
No doubt that MSU tries to get one scheduled the week before they play UM so they get an extra day to prepare...
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^
They always play on Friday to start the season. I'm saying they could try to schedule Purdue or Rutgers on a Friday the week before they play us so they get 7 days to prepare instead of 6.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:30 PM ^
will be wishing they were part of the MAC.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:23 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:26 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:28 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:30 PM ^
How about this - just limit it to the bottom two teams in each division from the previous year. Sort of like if you suck you get relegated to play next year on Friday night against another shitty team from the other division. Purdue and Rutgers on Friday night woohoo!
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:33 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:56 PM ^
Except that OSU is apparently down for this idea.
November 2nd, 2016 at 5:28 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 6:10 PM ^
In terms of hosting, I think they said only on their fall break weekend. But point taken.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^
I like it. Sort of like the British Premier League's relegation rules.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:31 PM ^
When Delany became commissioner in 1989, he said, the league had 16 televised football games. Now that number is 95, and he said the result is that the Saturday TV windows “become cannibalized.”
Friday is just as good a time as any to showcase a Rutgers-Purdue matchup since everyone will probably watch the Pac-12 game typically on that night anyway, so it would get the same viewership that it would on Saturday at, say, 3:30 PM.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^
In other words, Delany feels that the league exists for the benefit of television broadcasters. Why give Big Ten fans a choice of games to watch when we can limit them to one game at a time?
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:31 PM ^
The only time I don't mind Michigan playing on Thursday night is the first night of the season. The Utah game (other than the score) was nice to end the long wait of the summer and gives the team a few extra days to get prepared for the next game.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^
College football is so great right now. Why are they trying to "fix" it. Oversaturation is a real danger and college football is going down a dangerous path.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^
how is that even a thing? i dont care if there are 100 games played on friday, you will only watch what you want to. if nobody watches them, guess what, problem solved.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:32 PM ^
I don't think you understand how the current TV model works.
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:43 PM ^
well since you are an expert, enlighten everyone.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:37 PM ^
Friday Night is for High School football.
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:39 PM ^
I feel bad for the local high schools that have to compete with colleges more and more for attention.
The local high school game used to be a big community event.
November 2nd, 2016 at 7:47 PM ^
This takes money from the high school athletic boosters. They "pay-to-play" was becoming a big deal near the end of my high school career, and this is the kind of move that will force that hand.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^
Trickle down affect. ESPN figured out the beauty of the Thursday night game with college along time ago. Then the NFL caught on. Because ESPN has a contract which forces them to bendover for the NFL (even though they only get to air one game a week) college had to suffer. You have already seen it this year. The PAC12 has had a game on ESPN almost every Friday this season. The good ACC or SEC game on Thursday is now gone because ESPN doesn't want to compete with the NFL.
I was watching the USC vs. Cal game last Friday and the announcers were talking about the conversations they had with Sonny Dykes who hates playing Thursday or Friday games because it creates unbalanced/unfair advantages in individual match ups. I.e. A team that plays on a Thursday gets extra time to prepare for the following weeks game. Normally you would think it balanaces out. However, if you play a crap team on a Thursday with only four days to prepare isn't a big deal, but having two extra days to prepare for a big matchup is a big deal.
November 2nd, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^
The negative is that Big Ten fans will become desensitized to playing on days other than Saturday, and eventually the league office will have the political capital to make us play then, too. You open the door a crack and eventually it's wide open.
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:06 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:08 PM ^
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, OSU is in favor of Friday games. That's disappointing - I thought they would have held firm. So we're further down this road than I would have guessed.
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:14 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:23 PM ^
I think if Ohio State wants to do it on its own volition, it's not the same thing at all.Common sense dictates that OSU does not really want to do this. If they did, they would have hosted Friday games already. They are free to schedule nonconference games whenever they want, and they've always stuck to Saturdays. There are 14 schools in this league and our single voice can only carry so much weight. The other schools are not going to be pleased if we insist on Saturday timeslots while they're getting dumped on Friday. If the big schools had stuck together, that'd be one thing. But OSU cracking is a problem. The small schools will ask why Michigan should get preferential treatment when the other marquee program isn't.
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:47 PM ^
November 2nd, 2016 at 3:01 PM ^
The teams that need this are Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, Maryland, and Rutgers. That's the pool from which these games will/would be drawn. No one goes to these teams' games anyway so might as well get some extra TV exposure by moving them to a non-Saturday.
November 2nd, 2016 at 4:08 PM ^