Big Ten expands football games to Friday nights

Is college football ready for Purdue and Rutgers home games under the Friday night lights?

Throughout the talks to bring Big Ten football to Friday nights, Glass said IU coach Kevin Wilson and the rest of his colleagues across the conference were kept involved each step of the way.

IU athletic director Fred Glass told The Herald-Times on Wednesday that IN has agreed to play one Friday night game IN any three-year period. A tweet on MSU’s official Twitter page tonight said Michigan State would host one Friday night game per year provided it was Labor Day weekend.

Additionally, commissioner Jim Delany said that the six games will be split evenly between non-conference and conference games and that no team will play on Friday night more than two times. Iowa and Michigan State want to host only on Labor Day weekend. The plan is to play six games per season Friday nights until at least 2022.

A couple hours after Penn State’s statement, James Franklin spoke with the media after the Nittany Lions’ practice, reiterating that they will not host any Friday night games at Beaver Stadium and discussing the program’s position on the matter.

“As a proud member of the Big Ten”, Hobbs said, “we understand our responsibility and will work with the conference while continuing to do everything we can to support high school football here in New Jersey”.

Schmidt was listed as being out with a head injury prior to the season-opening game against LSU and has not played this year. Delany said he believes the school simply prefers Saturday games for “consistency of presentation”. Penn State is scheduled to play Maryland on the road next year, a prime candidate for a logical Friday night matchup.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association also openly opposed the decision, with executive director John E. “Jack” saying he is “disappointed and disheartened”. “We wanted to create a new opportunity for significant exposure and a more creative use of our national platforms for Big Ten football”.

Oh yeah, the Big Ten’s not a Midwest league anymore. It is likely the Friday night schedule will impact no more than six schools.

High school athletics representatives in Iowa and IL are unhappy with the Big Ten’s decision to schedule six college football games per year on Friday nights, a day of the week traditionally reserved for prep games.

Friday night college football has become more common in recent years.

Likelihood of Penn State actually going to the Rose Bowl?

Though Polk appeared briefly in the first three games of the season, he will be under the playing-time threshold required to receive a redshirt for medical reasons.

“Really working on our back tackles and really just staying in the play”, Barber said. Why would a team or school welcome less practice time before an all-important conference game? “I think this gets to more prime-time exposure for more programs”. “That’s a good thing for Big Ten football”.

With aspirations continuing its week-by-week trend of improvement and even an NCAA tournament berth, Penn State (8-7-2, 4-4-0 Big Ten) will kick off its Big Ten tournament campaign as it travels to East Lansing this weekend to take on Michigan State for a 1 p.m. matchup on November 6.