Big Ten Didn't Expect Negative Reaction to Friday Night Games

Iceland12

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According to one of the aggrieved, Jim Tenopir (the executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association, who met with Big Ten officials Monday along with executives from six other states), though, Big Ten officials have been surprised by the amount of backlash they’ve faced. Here’s what Tenopir told Land of Ten’s Sean Keeler following the meetings:

“The commissioner [Jim Delany] made the comment that Friday night games have been happening all across the country,” Tenopir, executive director of the Nebraska School Activities Association, told Land of 10 during Day One of the Big Ten Conference Joint Group Meetings.

“They did not expect the blowback that the Big Ten got on Friday nights.”

And by “blowback,” he means calls. Emails. Facebook comments. General social media hell.

Executives from seven state athletic or activities associations within the Big Ten footprint — Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, along with a representative from the National Federation of State High School Associations — met with league officials for two hours at the Big Ten’s suburban Chicago headquarters Monday to explain their concerns with the conference’s decision to play football games, including intraleague matchups, on Friday nights starting this fall.

Tenopir said Big Ten officials countered that the intent of Friday games was getting “some better prime-time coverage for some Big Ten teams that are traditionally second-tier compared to Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska.

“They downplayed the revenue. But if television’s involved, you have to know that revenue is a portion of that.”...

At the very least, though, this meeting did show Big Ten leadership there is plenty of opposition to their plans here. Will that lead to this plan being walked back? Not too likely, but it could help prevent further expansion. Keeler writes that the conference is not considering playing on any other weeknights for the time being (although they won’t rule that out indefinitely), and that they’ll be looking at how these Friday night games affect these other sports. For now, though, it’s still full speed ahead for Big Ten Friday Night Football, but those executives definitely now know that there is plenty of blowback.


http://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/neb...ten-not-expect-blowback-got-friday-games.html
 

Quite frankly, I don't care that much but they didn't expect that they'd get negative remarks? It's amazing some of these people are put in charge of this stuff. How could you not expect that?
 

How do you not expect a negative reaction?

Did they ask anyone?
 

What do you expect when you only pay your commissioner $20M? If he made $30M+ like other CEOs he would've had the capacity to better understand the issues.
 

What is more important is that they have evaluated and now it is time to adjust and move forward.
 




Quite frankly, I don't care that much but they didn't expect that they'd get negative remarks? It's amazing some of these people are put in charge of this stuff. How could you not expect that?

Is Norwood Teague on staff?
 






The thinking is so off. Yes, it would be a chance to give primetime coverage to schools not named Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc. Schools like Minnesota will not beat high school football for fans. I am the biggest Gopher Football fan in most circles I am in and I will not be attending a single Gopher game on a Friday night... mainly because I coach high school football.
 

The B1G brain trust seriously misjudged their constituency. I don't know how they could have thought the general Midwestern public would have supported this.
 



The thinking is so off. Yes, it would be a chance to give primetime coverage to schools not named Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc. Schools like Minnesota will not beat high school football for fans. I am the biggest Gopher Football fan in most circles I am in and I will not be attending a single Gopher game on a Friday night... mainly because I coach high school football.

I would think the Friday of MEA weekend would be a great night for a prime time Gopher football game. Remember, that week all the games are played on Wednesday.
 

Personally, I didn't think it was that big a deal if it was only done occasionally.
 

I would think the Friday of MEA weekend would be a great night for a prime time Gopher football game. Remember, that week all the games are played on Wednesday.

This is a fine idea.

One problem with Friday games is that it spreads things out more. The NFL thought they were making a brilliant move by making Thursday night football a regular thing and the ratings have started to go down for that.
 

This is a fine idea.

One problem with Friday games is that it spreads things out more. The NFL thought they were making a brilliant move by making Thursday night football a regular thing and the ratings have started to go down for that.

The NFL's problem is that NBC, ESPN, then whoever has the DH that week get first crack at the best match-ups. That and the guarantee that every team gets a Thursday night game.
 

In Minnesota, having a Friday night game on MEA friday would be ok, but not every state in the BIG has an MEA type HS break like we do, so it still isn't a great idea.
The people who made this decision didn't really think it through very well. If they want to promote the other teams in the BIG, then have start times on Saturday other than 11 and 2:30 and feature teams in ALL time slots.
 

How are they going to adjust? Not play games on Friday night? Meanwhile everyone loses.

They adjust by living with the contracted schedule they have in place and then don't schedule any other Friday night games without consent of said schools.
 

I don't personally care a lot about conflicting with HS football (no offense to those who do), but this still seems like a silly idea. It's fighting traffic to get to the game, it's fighting students for places to park, etc. The U can't handle parking on a Thursday night game on a day that the school is not in session! How on earth would it handle a Friday night game during school? Would they have to cancel night time classes? What time would they open parking lots? This just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

If they did this, I'd actually prefer it was at a neutral site. I still wouldn't love it, but it would be more tolerable...

Hopefully they scrap this quickly.
 

How much money is enough to blow up a system that works? Leave Fridays for high schools, Saturday for colleges, Sunday for pros. Thursday night football is bad for NFL. Oversaturation will be NFLs eventual downfall. If the MAC and Conference USA want to play Wed and Thursday, let them. No one watches anyway; it's like getting exposure on local news basically. Being on ESPNU on a Thursday night won't help attendance, increase donations or excite recruits; quit selling out to the almighty dollar at every stinking opportunity!
 




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