Nebraska would prefer to not play Friday night home games going forward.
The Cornhuskers lost their first game of the season to Illinois in overtime on Friday night in Week 4. Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen said Tuesday on Nebraska Sports Nightly that he had sent Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti a letter requesting that the school doesn’t host Friday night games in the future because of the logistics involved.
“I sent a letter yesterday to the commissioner and with the blessing of the president and the chancellor formally requesting to not host Friday games outside of Thanksgiving every other year, the game with Iowa,” Dannen said, referring to Nebraska’s annual Black Friday game vs. the Hawkeyes. “Just because of the size of the stadium and the locale, I don’t think we want to be canceling classes, canceling 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 off everyone will be. If it happens again, it happens again. I don’t like seeing other athletic directors in the league saying by golly we will not do that and putting their foot down. I’m not sure any institution should have the unilateral ability to do that. But if we do, I raised my hand with the commissioner and said Nebraska should be in that same position with 90,000 fans and the proximity we have to campus.”
Friday night games have been a source of consternation for athletic departments across the Big Ten. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has been adamant that his school will not host a Friday night game or even play in one. 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 Friday night programming after it chose not to renew a contract for the WWE’s Friday night “Smackdown” show. The network is showing college football games this fall and will show college basketball games on Friday nights after the football season is over. Friday night’s win by the Illini was watched by over 4 million people. More people watched the game Friday night than would have likely tuned in on Saturday.
The Friday night slot is being used to highlight teams that aren’t among the marquee programs in the Big Ten. Neither Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State play over the nine Friday nights Fox hosts a Big Ten game in 2024. Oregon, meanwhile, plays twice on Friday night along with Rutgers, UCLA, Washington, Purdue and Michigan State.
As long as Fox wants to televise Friday night Big Ten games, the conference will keep having teams play on Fridays. Money talks. However, it’ll be a fascinating dynamic if more athletic directors like Dannen keep pushing back against the programming vacancies that need to be filled by the TV networks who help subsidize the athletic departments across the conference.
