Few moves made by Jim Delany and the Big Ten have been as panned as the announcement this fall to begin scheduling Friday night football games beginning in 2017. Coaches hate it, fans that travel from afar abhor it, and social media roasted the conference for this move.
Now it appears one state legislator in Iowa is taking on the Big Ten in the only way he possibly can — introducing legislation to stop Iowa-based schools from hosting (or participating in) Friday night college football games.
This means Iowa State and the University of Iowa would be equally held to account here, but it is clear from the Hawkeye-loving legislator’s point of view this is all about telling the Big Ten “enough, is enough.”
The bill is rather simple on it own, composed of a whole two paragraphs that look very similar to each other in their wording. So, here is how the legislation is actually worded:
Prohibit the institutions of higher education under its control from scheduling during their regular intercollegiate sports calendar any intercollegiate football game to occur on a Friday.
What may need some clarifying for this actually to be fully considered is the language of “scheduling.” That’s because it makes it seem as if there can’t be any Friday games period — home or away. That seems to step over the bounds of what the Iowa state legislature can do.
However, if it is meant legally to mean scheduling home games, the state has the right to dictate those terms since both Iowa State, the University of Iowa, and Northern Iowa all receive state funding for athletic endeavors.
On the surface, this may seem like a trivial thing, but for many in the Midwest, getting to a college football game is a journey. That’s especially true in farm-based societies like most of the Big Ten. There are real world consequences that could hurt the bottom line
In the end, it appears this legislation is directly aimed at the Big Ten’s idea of adding Friday night football games. Michigan and Penn State have already said no, with Penn State saying it wouldn’t play host to games and Michigan simply declining to participate at all.
Other schools like Wisconsin have limited their participation to any point before Labor Day, and should this legislation pass, Iowa would join the chorus of Big Ten teams to say no to the idea already in progress.
With six weeks of programming to fill, the options are certainly slim for Delany and his new television deal that will be in place this upcoming season.
Perhaps the fan and high school football have a fighting chance to win out over the juggernaut that is the multi-million (or billion) dollar TV deals that run college football today.
