After losing at home on a Friday night, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen is slightly changing his tune on Friday night Big Ten games. After saying in May that the pros outweighed the cons, with the national exposure and TV revenue making it worthwhile, Dannen no longer wishes for his University — and football program — to play host to any of these games again unless it’s Black Friday.
There’s likely a nonzero chance that he would be beating the same drum of the pros outweighing the cons had Nebraska pulled out an overtime win over Illinois. But in losing to Bret Bielema’s side — in a somewhat controversial fashion — Dannen has sent a letter to the Big Ten requesting that Lincoln no longer host Friday games, with the final game of the regular season as the lone exception.
He pointed to class being canceled in Lincoln this past Friday as the precursor.
Dannen, as shared by On3 Sports, has formally requested that Nebraska refrain from hosting Friday night games, except for the annual Black Friday rivalry matchup against Iowa. He announced this decision during his appearance on the Husker Radio Network’s Sports Nightly program on Tuesday.
“The university canceled in-person classes on Friday, and I sent a letter yesterday to the commissioner with the blessing of the president and the chancellor formally requesting not to host Friday games – outside Thanksgiving every other year, the game with Iowa,” Dannen said, per On3.
“Because of the size of the stadium and your locale, I don’t think we want to be canceling classes, canceling in-person classes. I’m sure the students didn’t mind, but at the end of the day, the more we can avoid that, I think the better off everybody will be.”
This isn’t entirely unprecedented, as Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel practically dared the conference to schedule a Friday night home game at The Big House, stating that he told Fox and the Big Ten that Michigan will “absolutely not” play on Friday nights.
While Nebraska could host future Friday night contests, Dannen said he wanted to voice his concerns by reaching out to the commissioner’s office.
“If it happens again, it happens again,” Dannen continued, per On3. “I don’t like seeing other athletic directors in the league saying, ‘My golly, we will not do that,’ and [lay] their foot down. I’m not sure any institutions should have the unilateral ability to do that.
“But if we do, I raised my hand with the commissioner and said Nebraska should be in that same position with 90,000 fans and the proximity we have to campus.”
But the ratings are what the ratings are — and Fox College Football Friday appears to be onto something.
Whether the conference will reconsider its stance on Friday night games remains to be seen, but for now, Nebraska will stick to what works best: Friday nights on Black Friday, and Saturdays for everything else.
[On3]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.