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| Tuesday, May 1 Updated: May 9, 1:34 PM ET NCAA moves to Friday night football Associated Press | |||
Friday night football, once reserved for the high school level, will now
include college games following a decision by the NCAA to remove
legislation restricting them.
The Mountain West Conference moved quickly when the restriction
was lifted by the NCAA board of directors last week.
UNLV has scheduled games on Friday, Sept. 7, against
Northwestern and Friday, Sept. 14, against Colorado State. Both
games will be shown on ESPN.
"We discussed this last week at our spring meetings," said
Bret Gilliland, associate commissioner of the Mountain West.
"We'll look at it case by case. There are issues on gates and on
recruiting. Kids you are recruiting are out there, playing their
own games on Friday nights."
Gilliland said the Mountain West had a Friday game last
Thanksgiving weekend between BYU and Utah that started at 4 p.m. to
avoid the old legislation, which had prohibited starts at 7 p.m. or
later.
The Mid-American Conference has two Friday night dates,
Minnesota at Toledo on Aug. 31 and the league championship game on
Nov. 30. Both will be televised by ESPN2.
Conference USA will play two Friday night games in November.
The Western Athletic Conference remains in discussions with ESPN
but does not yet have a contract. Jeff Hurd, associate commissioner
of the conference, said the issue of Friday night games would be
discussed Wednesday in Phoenix at a meeting of the conference's
coaches and athletic directors.
"This will be an opportunity for some smaller conferences to
get exposure," said Chris LaPlaca, a spokesman for ESPN. "We
think the ratings will be pretty good." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | ALSO SEE
Coaching group opposes playing college games on FridaysSEC appeases high school officials: No Friday games | ||
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ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. can understand why some college teams will play on Friday night.