For better or worse, Friday night games have become a routine part of the college football schedule. And college football coaches absolutely hate it. They hate it for several reasons, but the most obvious is that it takes away from coaching staffs around the country attending the high school games of players they’re recruiting. In the eyes of college coaches, Friday nights are for high school football and high school football only. Just ask Indiana coach Tom Allen, who had no problem taking issue with his team kicking off Week 2 against Indiana State this Friday.
“You know how I feel about Friday night games,” Allen told a group of reporters Monday. “That’s not a decision that we make. That comes straight from the Big Ten, so if anyone wants to complain about that, don’t talk to me. Friday night is for high school football, bottom line. ’ll say it ‘til I’m blue in the face, ‘til somebody tells me to shut up. Then I’ll probably say it again. Friday night football is for high school football.”
Tom Allen on next week’s Friday night kickoff against Indiana State:
“I’ll say it ‘til I’m blue in the face, ‘til somebody tells me to shut up. Then I’ll probably say it again. Friday night football is for high school football.” #iufb pic.twitter.com/AqkWb2EVqw
— Jack Ankony (@ankony_jack) September 3, 2023
But this isn’t an issue that’s going away.
It’s been obvious that there are going to be more windows of games for the Big Ten beginning in 2024 with the additions of USC and UCLA. And that expanded further with the conference now also set to add Oregon and Washington as well. It’s been a bit of a question of where the Big Ten is going to be able to fit those new windows of game. A partial answer to that conundrum was seemingly given by Scott Dochterman of The Athletic last week.
With Fox providing the funding for the Big Ten to add Washington and Oregon next year, the Fox family of networks will air more games in non-traditional windows. That means more Friday night games and late-night Saturday kickoffs. Those games will appear on either Fox, FS1 or BTN but it’s unclear where those selections will fall in the draft process.
Good luck with selling college coaches on more Friday night games. Because most coaches feel exactly like Allen does.
