ESPN...$....and college football...

[WoolyBully]

My homies over at ESPN are running a promotion "19 days of football". To accomodate this, there's the Sunday night pro-game,  college on Thursday & Saturday. However....they're also putting on games, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday...etc.

So....we *****-n-moan about moving games to Fridays, but I wanted to hear what you thought about  this moving games to every night of the week.  Granted, we're not involved (well...there was that UAB thingy), but if they do it in 2004, I see no reason why they won't do it henceforth.  I think last night was Uconn & Norhtern Illinois (or some such MAC event).  I don't think you're gonna see the BCS teams playing on this sort of schedule.

Whaddya think?  Is this sports charity?  Face it...the odds of me down in Tampa watching Uconn & Northern Illinois are pretty danged remote unless you DO put it on a weeknight.  Is this taking advantage of the have-nots?

[Omniscientbull]

I hate having to play on a Tues or Wed but it does give me a chance to see other teams that I don't get to see on a regular basis.

[ETKbull]

FSU and NCState are scheduled for this Thursday night.  Granted most of the mid week games are mid level teams but they get national exposure and money which can go a long way to getting some recruits.  It does hurt ticket sales for the away team, but looking at the Toledo - NIU game last night, they had a decent turn out, and the away team (Toledo) destroyed #22 NIU.

[79 Bull]

I think schools should only play 1 or 2 non-Saturday games for TV exposure.  UL is out of control.  5 of their 11 games are not on Saturday and they are in the middle of 4 in a row on weekdays.  Teams should play at least 9 of 11 games on Saturday.  Call it old fashioned, but that is the tradition of college football.

[USFPhil]

In a perfect world all games would be on saturday but it is not a perfect world and as for us we could use the exposure and the $$ so if we are approached for a weekday game like we have been in the past I say go for it

[dabull80]

I usually like tradition but in this case I like the idea of being able to see teams you may not normaly get to see play.  How many SEC or big ten games can one man watch ?

[BullDoug]

I have no problem with Tuesday thru Thursday nite college football.  As a fan it has really given USF's season a wierd feel w/two in a row.  I'm not to sure I'd wanna havta go to a game during the week (T-Th) as a season holder.  Friday wasn't bad last yr but IMO Friday's should be left to the high schools.  I do truly luv ESPNHD on Thursdays.  Wish Tue. & Wed. was on ESPNHD too.

[smazza]

niu sure has come along way

[bulls96go]

exposure on home on away during week nights

[GarySJ]

The schools should take it upon themselves to keep the weeknight games to a minimum. One or two per school is enough.

You also have to wonder when it becomes a false economy. Look at our game @UAB. How many more walkup tickets would they have sold had the game been on Saturday? 5,000 at $20 apiece? Compare that to what ESPN paid ($300K I think), and the value of the bad publicity they got from having such an empty stadium, and you wonder whether or not this is a good deal.

No school should have more than 2 weeknight games. ESPN does this because any football game guarantees certain ratings well above what normal programming would bring. If that's the case, they should extend this offer to WAC, Sun Belt, and even I-AA teams.