Big East to double the number of weeknight games

[bulls96go]

Yes, the stadium is in East Hartford, but buses take students to the game.  The regular season tickets have been sold out through 2008.  We hold weeknight basketball games in Hartford and get thousands of students to attend.  I have no worries that they will attend weeknight football games.

wow your reg season football home games ar sold out

how many tickets is that?

how many does your stadium hold?

how big is your student section?

[Guest USFPDIDDYPHIL]

Every year, we see more and more weeknight games at the college level.  I think the demand for football is rising.  I watch almost any college football game that's on.  On saturdays when I'm not at a USF game, i'll follow several at once.

If I had a game to watch every day I probably would.  And I bet there's quite a few people like me.

It's hard on the student athlete thought, although not THAT hard.  Many schools have few friday classes so thursday wouldnt be a problem, etc.  Away games on tuesday would be, but as long as each team only does something like that once per year, the athletes should be ok with classes.  Missing 1 class due to sports isnt really the issue for those that have issues anyway.

It's about money yes, but I think it would be a good thing for more teams to get more exposure on different days, even if this is just a side benefit.  I would skip a class once a year to play on national TV.  And I'm a "good" student!

[Guest UConn Huskies]

I believe that there are about 30,000 regular season tickets, and about 10,000 student tickets.  The stadium is beautiful and I enjoyed attending a few games there last season.  Yes, weeknight games don't please a lot of people, but it does put us on TV.  Several other Huskie fans have stated to me that as of now, the talks between the Big East and ESPN have broken down.  ESPN wants to cut the current deal by over a half and want to show almost all of our Big East football games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, even Sunday nights.  This might be our best deal, several other networks are also looking into televising games on Wednesday and Thursday nights including Foxsports net and TBS.  NBC just picked up the NHL, but word is that they are not interested in picking up the Big East football package.  We either play on weeknights or not play on TV at all.

[beastiebull]

I wouldn't mind being on TV on a Tues.  I don't think, however, that our home games would be that well attended if on a Tues.

[smazza]

bulls fans- you have sold out a long time ago

get used to football on most nights but saturday

saturday will be saved for ranked teams

[dabull80]

So in a couple of years we will be playing on Saturday nights.  Sounds good to me.

[Guest UConn Huskies]

Talks have stalled between the Big East and ESPN, and ESPN wants a package deal with the Big East for football that will equal similar deals ESPN gave MWC and C-USA.  From what I am hearing, there could be one or two Big East games each week in the ESPN and ESPN2 lineup if the Big East accepts the deal.  Big East teams would play on Tuesday nights and Friday nights.  Thursday nights will showcase ACC and C-USA games.  Wednesday nights will showcase MAC and MWC games.  Friday nights will showcase Big East and MWC games.  Saturdays will showcase ACC, SEC (nights), C-USA, and MAC games.  Possible Sunday nights will showcase Big East games.  TBS, Fox Sports, and NBC have all expressed interest in showing games on Thusday and Saturday nights to compete with ESPN and ESPN2; however, those networks are looking at other conferences such as the Pac 10, Big 12, and other conferences TBA.

[bulls96go]

if be gets more than 50% of old package that's probably about right without UM and Vtech the BBall should go up to keep income to current schools about the same.

the BE needs to 'prove' itself in football if it wants a significant increase

in the football package to near the old levels.

BE may "lure" a quality school before breaking  into all sports conference

candidates Penn state or ND if they cont to be mediocre

[namuh-bull]

College football should be played on Saturday.  The game is all about tradition, with fans converging on their Alma Mater from all over and staying for the weekend, sometimes even on campus when a parking lot is opened up into a temporary city for RVs.  You can see old men dressed in school colors reliving their youth of 40, 50, or even more years ago, as well as little girls not even old enough for kindergarten dressed in school cheerleader outfits.  

Sure, we at USF are new to the whole thing, but we're already developing traditions and creating great memories.  There is a magic to college football that in my opnion makes it the greatest spectator sport there is.  The NFL does not compare.  Some things mean more than a couple dollars.

[smazza]

our tradition seems to be weekday games and not saturday games which is ok with me I guess