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Friday Night games anger High School Coaches

Friday college football angers HS coaches

By Greg Auman, Times Staff Writer
In print: Tuesday, July 15, 2008

TAMPA — Perhaps the greatest achievement in USF's 2007 football season was a September upset of No. 5 West Virginia, a landmark victory that drew 67,018 fans to Raymond James Stadium for the program's first home sellout and the biggest win in a 6-0 start which saw the Bulls eventually ranked No. 2 in the nation.

The game was remarkable for several reasons, including the fact that it was played on a Friday night, to a record national television audience on ESPN2. For that reason, not everyone in town was happy with USF, and the same will be true Sept. 12, a Friday when USF hosts nationally ranked Kansas.

High school coaches across the state are upset to see college football encroaching on a night which once exclusively meant high school games. But the conflict isn't likely to end soon.

"I have very strong feelings about this issue," said Hillsborough High coach Earl Garcia, a past president of the Florida Athletic Coaches Association. "The NFL waits until college season has ended to play any games on Saturdays. It's like scheduling a varsity game on a junior varsity night. I feel like the Big East is biting the hand that feeds them, and I don't think that sends a good message."

USF coach Jim Leavitt is sympathetic to the coaches' concerns, though not to the extent that he'd put up a battle or ask anyone higher up at USF to do so when ESPN books the Bulls for a Friday night broadcast.

"I don't personally like to play on Friday nights, because I respect the high school coaches and players," Leavitt said last week. "I don't want to infringe on their time, and I want them to be able to watch us. If we get an opportunity to play on TV, it's hard for me to tell our players we're going to turn them down. I'm not a proponent for it, but I appreciate the opportunity. It's a very thin line you walk. … How are you going to say no to ESPN?"

Leavitt said the school benefits from the exposure of an ESPN weeknight game, especially with recruits. He said high school coaches have expressed their displeasure to him, and those coaches have also gone well over Leavitt's head.

The FACA, speaking for 6,500 members across the state, sent a letter to Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese last fall, expressing "disappointment" that the conference plays five games a year on Friday nights as part of its TV contract with ESPN.

The letter said the scheduling conflict shows "a complete lack of consideration" for high school football, estimating that 20,000 fans who attended the USF-West Virginia game would have gone to high school games that night. Hillsborough County does not track high school attendance.

The letter also said coaches were threatening to ban Big East coaches from their campuses, warning even that "the state legislature will take action if this policy is not changed."

Tranghese wrote back in November, explaining that the Big East, having lost three teams to the ACC after the 2004 season, was "in a weakened state" in negotiating its current TV contract and had no choice but to accept a deal that included weeknight games. "I am assuming you are not suggesting that we break an existing contract," he wrote, pledging to work to negotiate "to either eliminate or reduce our Friday night appearances" in the next agreement.

The Big East's contract runs through 2013, however, and USF's emergence makes it an attractive team for spotlight games. In addition to the Friday game, the Bulls play two games on Thursday nights this year and another on Sunday; those deviations from the traditional Saturdays are less a problem because they don't interfere directly with the high school football economy.

Tranghese said he took the letter seriously, sending copies of it to ESPN as well as his member schools' presidents and athletic directors. ESPN can still choose the games for Friday nights. This will be the third year in a row USF hosts one; only Connecticut and Louisville, with four each, will have hosted more since the Bulls joined the league in 2005.

Other area coaches, including Armwood's Sean Callahan, shared Garcia's disappointment about college games on Friday night, but agreed they would never take part in any boycott that would limit the recruitment of their players.

"I don't think any of us would do anything to hurt one of our kids' chances at a scholarship," Garcia said. "I've heard rumblings of that, but at the end of the day, I don't see it happening."

Cheers,
Neil

I agree with the high school coaches. But they can't blame The BEast. It was ESPN that was the driving force behind that time slot.

But its evidently ok for high schools to play on Saturdays, as many in the Cincinnati area do. Until last season - UC had serious competition for fans for many of these Saturday games.

I'm tired of hearing this argument. It's a business decision and for a college team a chance to get on tv.

The Reds and other MLB teams play on Friday nights going up against high school football - have they ever been called out?

In the Miami area because of lack of stadiums. high schools play wednesday,thursday,fridays and saturdays.

Thank you, Bearcatfan. I’ve long held that same belief that it goes both ways. Most of the big Cincinnati programs play a national or intersectional schedule many times during the season, and those games are on Saturdays, for travel.

But, the business side of me looks at the HS programs as the college programs’ “customers”, and the customer is always right. I just hope this is something that doesn’t affect recruiting long term. But, these complaints just sound more like idle noise than anything.

Cubanbull Wrote:In the Miami area because of lack of stadiums. high schools play wednesday,thursday,fridays and saturdays.

Good point...as Thursday Night HS Varsity Football in my area seems just as busy with HS games as on Friday night (as noted...due to shortage of fields, referee's, etc...).

I understand what the Bulls and the Big East are facing. Somethin similiar happened with East Carolina University a few years back where we were made out to be the bad gus for playing a televised game on a Friday night. It really hurt our recruiting in the years to come because a large percentage of High Schools told ECU staff they were not welcomed on their campus to recruit kids and basically pushed kids to go elsewhere to play football. Things have been mended but for that three year period it was tough. We had a lot of out of state kids. I hope the Florida HS football folks and USF/Big East can work something out. I would hate for any school to go through having thei schools coaches not welcomed on HS campuses.

ECU Pirate

If Florida High schools don't want the BE at their schools then let their players play in the Sunbelt or at Division II schools when the ACC, SEC, B12, and B10 reject them. If the BE moves their games around on Friday nights to different states it really should not be a problem. I guess high schools that play on Saturdays are going to tell the other BCS conferences and Notre Lame not to play on Saturdays too.

bearcatfan Wrote:But its evidently ok for high schools to play on Saturdays, as many in the Cincinnati area do. Until last season - UC had serious competition for fans for many of these Saturday games.

I'm tired of hearing this argument. It's a business decision and for a college team a chance to get on tv.

The Reds and other MLB teams play on Friday nights going up against high school football - have they ever been called out?

I agree with you there. I don't recall my high school playing on Fridays much. The games, to my recollection, were primarily played on Saturday afternoons. And while I would like to avoid BE college games on Friday nights; how can we say "No" to ESPN?

If high school football is going to compete with tv time with college teams, then they better expect Friday nite games from now on. This is going to effect every school in the nation. Coaches must remember like everything else, things go in cycles. They alway arent going to be on top every year either. Coaches, whether it be high school or college, must produce in order to keep their jobs. This problem is going to really esculate in the future. I understand their frustation. It would make sense for the high school system to change their day for Friday nite games. Unless this was last minute, then I dont see the big deal. The example they used in the article, I assume is was a schedule TV game, then in that case the school systems should have change their date. Would it really be a big deal to play the game on Saturday than Friday nite?

how many professional sports cities are in the big east that play on fridays?
cincinnati (mlb)
pittsburgh (mlb, nhl)
tampa (mlb, nhl)
rutgers (?) (mlb x2, nhl x3)

syracuse and uconn have the ahl (uconn in hartford), louisville maybe aaa baseball if their season lasts long enough. looking strictly at what is actually in the cities, 87.5% of the football conference have professional teams that play on friday nights, west virginia being the only exception and that's if you don't include them in pittsburgh's media market.

i want to know where all of this whining from south florida came from and if it only started since usf joined the big east. i know my high school plays on friday nights, and i am convinced that they really aren't going to worry about if the local college team is playing at teh same time. that's why they invented pocket radios. :)

"The letter also said coaches were threatening to ban Big East coaches from their campuses, warning even that "the state legislature will take action if this policy is not changed."

That is pathetic and so overboard that it is clear the these HS coaches do not have the best interests of the players in either mind nor heart.

Get over it, HS coaches...it's just one game of the season.

Cubanbull Wrote:In the Miami area because of lack of stadiums. high schools play wednesday,thursday,fridays and saturdays.

Cuban, it's funny you mention that. I was just explaining this to my son the other day. I went to McArthur High in Hollywood, Florida, and we were one of the few schools that had a football stadium in the area, so during the football season, there were games on our field almost every night. We only played one road game per season, and all of our games (except the finale, which was homecoming) were on Friday nights, but other area schools would play their "home" games at our place on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. JV games were played on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Out here in California, every school has a football "stadium" (most are crap compared to what we had, even back in the '70's).

The other thing was that we had almost 70 guys on our varsity team, and another 50 or so on JV. My son's JV teams the last two years had ~30 guys, and this year on varsity he's one of only 28 players. The difference in the level of football as well as the participation is just shocking to me.

USFFan