It’s been obvious that there are going to be more windows of games for the Big Ten beginning in 2024 with the additions of USC and UCLA. And that expanded further with the conference now also set to add Oregon and Washington as well. It’s been a bit of a question of where the Big Ten is going to be able to fit those new windows of game.
Now we have a better idea of what looks like, as Awful Announcing reported on an interview from earlier this week, in which The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman spoke with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. As a part of that wide-ranging interview, it was revealed that the conference will have at least nine Friday night football games on Fox properties beginning in 2024, the same year that USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will join the conference—up from the five Friday games for the conference in 2023 (plus a doubleheader on Black Friday).
“It’ll be significant in terms of the amount of national exposure that we have on Friday night on Fox,” Petitti told Dochterman
Here’s more from AA’s Ben Axelrod:
While the Big Ten has featured select games on Friday nights since 2017, those matchups have primarily been featured on Fox’s secondary platforms, FS1 and the Big Ten Network. And they’ve mostly come during the early part of the college football calendar.
Petitti’s comments to Dochterman, however, seem to imply that Fox will be featuring more Big Ten night games on its broadcast network.
As you might imagine, that didn’t exactly sit well with those in the college football world, who shared their displeasure on social media.
Literally nobody, outside of the TV execs, wants this. https://t.co/lmzR4WOthJ
— Brian Guteking SZN (@packrfan4) October 11, 2023
Fridays are for high school football. What a shame https://t.co/0OxF9jilTO
— Justin Whitlatch (@WingT_Football) October 11, 2023
I know this sounds like an old man but, Friday should be for high school football. https://t.co/tTOm8693TQ
— 𝒫𝒶𝓉𝓇𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝒮𝒽𝓊𝒸𝓀 (@PShuck) October 11, 2023
I'm old enough to remember when we were sold on Fridays being non-obtrusive and only early in the year and only on Labor Day weekend and….blah, blah, blah. #$oldout https://t.co/4rpmQPJl9T
— Travis Wilson (@travisWSN) October 11, 2023
Hey Fox, Friday nights are for High School Football!!! https://t.co/xusiIeoBWX
— Jared Luginbill (@JaredLuginbill) October 11, 2023
I love the money in the deal the B1G gets, but I hate the FOX strategy https://t.co/KZ7ylOmYoc
— The Victory Bell (@VictoryBellOSU) October 11, 2023
I like when TV network exec/decision makers get together and ask themselves the big questions like: “What can we do that everyone will hate?” and then make sure they do those things https://t.co/zV69B1Ah5n
— Jeremy Birmingham (@Birm) October 11, 2023
Nobody wants this. https://t.co/QuEmY9cdpp
— Spencer Holbrook (@SpencerHolbrook) October 11, 2023
We’ll have to see how this plays out, but the consensus is that Fridays are high school football.
