The debate over the B1G Ten's idea of playing some games on Friday nights got me thinking about this question. Do you like weeknight games, or hate them completely, feeling that attending a weeknight game will somehow deny you a spot in heaven?

Not enough answer choices. I like games on Tues, Wed, Thurs as long as they don't involve my team.

I love em. Very little is on TV on weeknights from Aug-Nov. I was very happy to be able to watch NIU a few times this year when I wouldn't have been afforded the luxury had they night broadcasted weeknight games.

(02-26-2014 12:12 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Not enough answer choices. I like games on Tues, Wed, Thurs as long as they don't involve my team.

Same here....

It depends on who is playing. But I have the same approach to all televised football games. Teams I like, I watch. Teams I don't like, I ignore. When the games are played doesn't really matter, as long as the ones I want to watch are on TV. If there are no teams I want to watch on TV, I don't watch. It's that simple.

(02-26-2014 12:26 PM)Chappy Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 12:12 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  Not enough answer choices. I like games on Tues, Wed, Thurs as long as they don't involve my team.

Same here....

Same here. I like watching the weeknight games, but don't like attending them.

If my team is involved then I only like weeknight games where they are the visitor. But overall I enjoy watching weeknight college football.

Most G5 schools have had to put up with a few weeknight games and received grief from P5 fans for doing it.

I'll admit to like watching some, but I hate the idea of ever seeing a college I strongly root for in one.

I answered "no" but that is my opinion of my own school playing on weeknights. It is kind of interesting seeing games during the week, if it gives me a chance to see teams play that I can't see on Saturday.

My own school ends up playing 3 games on weeknights, which is too many. They're pretty much always near the end of the year, so it's cold out there. And it's at night, so it's even colder. And it's hard for people to get to the game after work, so it hurts attendance. I think our big yearly game against Toledo would get more fans on a Saturday afternoon. Same with the other games. The exposure is good, but there is a cost.

Who would not like weeknight games? Do you want to go to the bar during the week and watch TMZ?

(02-26-2014 03:08 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  My own school ends up playing 3 games on weeknights, which is too many. They're pretty much always near the end of the year, so it's cold out there. And it's at night, so it's even colder.

That's a twist on the Big Ten/Friday night issue that (being a Californian) I hadn't considered. A November night game in the upper Midwest is a lot less pleasant at the stadium than a November night game in California or in the south.

I love watching weeknight games on TV. But they are a major PITA for ticket holders. MAC stands always look empty for Tues/Wed games. A better solution for ESPN would be to film all the lessor conferences games on Saturday. That way their fans get to have the true college football experience. Then show the best games on tape delay on week nights as those conferences' games of the week.

That all being said. Friday night is not a week night. It is the weekend. At least up here in NJ Friday night is not reserved for high school games. There are plenty of schools that don't even have lights on their fields, so they play old school on Saturday afternoon. This has always clashed with RU games. We could and should schedule one home game on Friday night every year. The TV audience would be bigger and more local recruits would be able to come.

As a fan of a program that has literally played on every day of the week - even Sunday and Monday - at one point or another, I greatly prefer Saturday games.

Kinda depends: I love watching all weeknight games (G5 and P5 teams). As a fan of my team, I figure one non-Saturday night game is okay but it does mess up travel and tailgating.

(02-26-2014 03:45 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  I love watching weeknight games on TV. But they are a major PITA for ticket holders. MAC stands always look empty for Tues/Wed games. A better solution for ESPN would be to film all the lessor conferences games on Saturday. That way their fans get to have the true college football experience. Then show the best games on tape delay on week nights as those conferences' games of the week.

That all being said. Friday night is not a week night. It is the weekend. At least up here in NJ Friday night is not reserved for high school games. There are plenty of schools that don't even have lights on their fields, so they play old school on Saturday afternoon. This has always clashed with RU games. We could and should schedule one home game on Friday night every year. The TV audience would be bigger and more local recruits would be able to come.

Friday night might be a weekend, but you still have people struggling to get there after work in time for the game, especially if they start at 6 pm.

I like them. You don't want them every week, but they are fun. In reality you are talking about two days a year at most, and that is a worst case. You know well ahead of time (you actually know the time and network far ahead of most games). There is plenty of time to plan for them, and you can have a lot of fun. Often they are decent games, may not be blockbusters, but rarely if in a P5 conference are they duds (dud games don't go on national TV most of the time). You get national TV exposure, often times advertising and promotion all week, are usually either the only game on, or one of two, and on top of it all, you get to spend all day Saturday watching other teams.

I like Weekday games. As I said, I don't want 7 of them, but if UofL has two home and one on the road (like in 2014) that suits me just fine.

Besides I have to assume most of you who vote against are not basketball fans or don't go to basketball games. There is not a gigantic difference.

(02-26-2014 04:46 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  Friday night might be a weekend, but you still have people struggling to get there after work in time for the game, especially if they start at 6 pm.

I never understood this. For example Louisville has three weeknight football games next year, Monday Sept 1 vs. Miami, Friday Oct 3 @ Syracuse, and Thursday October 30 vs. Florida State. And guess what, today is February 26. and I have 7 - 8 months to prepare to get off work a couple of hours early, or if I had to commute, arrange for it. How hard is that?

Why is it that NFL fans going to Monday Night Football don't have a problem with this? Monday is a much harder day to deal with than a Thursday or Friday? Why do they not have problems with Thursday Night games? Yes NFL teams do draw more of their fans from the immediate vicinity than some college teams, but the point is the same. You have 7 months to prepare for a weeknight game, which for many just means getting off two hours earlier (of if you are me leaving work at noon at tailgating all day) and others means taking a day off work. With seven month' notice, most people should not have an issue with this. To me, it is just an excuse.

Now I understand the delimna with Friday Nights games in terms of conflicting with HS football, far more than the ability to simply get there. That is a different animal in some places. I would think If talking of one game per year, or likely one every other year, I think it can be addressed. But in terms of travel, a Friday night game simply means taking one day off work. One. For the year.

Should not be an issue with planning for the majority of people. I realize there are exceptions, but most people can arrange a day off seven months in advance. And the few who can't, should be counterbalanced by those who can't go to games on Saturdays (or every Saturday anyway) who now become available to go.

As a fan, weeknight home games suck and I'm lucky enough to be flexible at work and take off and go, many aren't that lucky. The other issue for home games is traffic. A Saturday crowd of equal size to a Thursday or Tuesday game causes much less traffic stress. Weeknight games mean I enter town as people are leaving work. So that makes the drive worse. Most of the people attending a weeknight game are looking to arrive at about the same time. With a Saturday game, especially a night game, you have the few freaks rolling in Friday evening, then the crazed tailgaters in time to cook breakfast. The hardcore tailgaters in time to cook lunch then the average tailgaters. Then the got to see the warm-ups people, then the rest of the crowd. You have less usualy traffic and the crowd arrives spread out over many hours.

Now for road games, love them. Usually only a couple other games on and the national media guys I follow on Twitter who would never mention our game are usually sending out quite a few game related tweets.

Our last two Tuesday night games drew about three quarter of a million viewers, that would never happen on a Saturday unless we were playing a huge name program.

(02-26-2014 05:29 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  As a fan, weeknight home games suck and I'm lucky enough to be flexible at work and take off and go, many aren't that lucky. The other issue for home games is traffic.

If you wait til the week of the game to try to arrange to leave early, yeah I can see the problems. But people have no problem arranging bowl plans to miss several days to go to games, with 2-3 weeks notice. I simply cannot fathom how a single day off, maybe two for a Thursday game, with 6-8 months notice, can be a big deal for someone who regularly travels long distances to games. And if you live in the town the game is on, we are not even talking days off. We are talking leaving an hour or two early. It's just not that hard to arrange.

(02-26-2014 05:34 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(02-26-2014 05:29 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  As a fan, weeknight home games suck and I'm lucky enough to be flexible at work and take off and go, many aren't that lucky. The other issue for home games is traffic.

If you wait til the week of the game to try to arrange to leave early, yeah I can see the problems. But people have no problem arranging bowl plans to miss several days to go to games, with 2-3 weeks notice. I simply cannot fathom how a single day off, maybe two for a Thursday game, with 6-8 months notice, can be a big deal for someone who regularly travels long distances to games. And if you live in the town the game is on, we are not even talking days off. We are talking leaving an hour or two early. It's just not that hard to arrange.

People who work in factories and many retail and service jobs don't have the flexibility.