Nebraska would like to move forward without playing home games on Friday nights.
The Cornhuskers lost their first game of the season to Illinois in overtime on Friday night in Week 4. Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen told “Nebraska Sports Nightly” Tuesday that he had sent a letter to Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti requesting that the school not host future Friday night games due to the logistics involved.
“I sent a letter to the commissioner yesterday and with the blessing of the president and the chancellor, I formally requested that we not have any Friday games other than Thanksgiving every other year, the game with Iowa,” Dannen said, referring to Nebraska’s annual Black Friday game against the Hawkeyes. “Just because of the size of the stadium and the location, I don’t think we want to cancel classes, cancel in-person classes. I’m sure the students didn’t mind, but at the end of the day, the more we can avoid that, the better it is for everybody. If it happens again, it happens again. I don’t like to see other athletic directors around the league say we’re not going to do that and put their foot down. I’m not sure any institution should have the unilateral authority to do that. But if we do, I’ve raised my hand to the commissioner and said Nebraska should be in the same position with 90,000 fans and the proximity to campus.”
Friday night games are a source of consternation for athletic departments in the Big Ten. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has always insisted that his school will not host or even participate in a Friday night game. The Wolverines have long been very protective of Saturday afternoon games in Ann Arbor.
The push for Friday night games in the Big Ten comes as Fox is using college sports to fill its Friday night schedule after opting not to renew a contract for WWE’s Friday Night “Smackdown” show. The network is airing college football games this fall and will air college basketball games on Friday nights after football season ends. The Illini’s win on Friday night was watched by more than 4 million people. More people watched the game on Friday night than likely would have watched on Saturday.
The Friday night slot is used to highlight teams that aren’t among the marquee programs in the Big Ten. Neither Michigan, Ohio State nor Penn State play on the nine Friday nights that Fox will carry a Big Ten game in 2024. Oregon, meanwhile, plays twice on Friday nights, along with Rutgers, UCLA, Washington, Purdue and Michigan State.
As long as Fox wants to air Big Ten games on Friday nights, the conference will let teams play on Fridays. Money talks. It will be a fascinating dynamic, though, if more athletic directors like Dannen continue to resist the programming vacancies that must be filled by the TV networks that help subsidize the conference athletic departments.
