[NU Sports] Turkey and Big Ten football ...

[Jonathan Hodges]

Here's an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer with some more details:

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/119736599792430.xml&coll=2

Apparently teams may begin to move games next year (2008 season) with
permission of the league, and although conference schedules have been set
through 2011, the conference games starting in 2009 will be re-arranged to
accommodate the extra week in the schedule.

I expected this move to come at some point but didn't believe it would be so
soon - hopefully this points to an era where practicality means more than
tradition in the Big Ten (although with recent changes such as participation
in the BCS and instant replay - which the Big Ten played the lead on - that
day has hopefully already come).  It obviously helps the Big Ten garner some
additional TV coverage, gives teams the chance for an actual bye within the
year (or two if the season works out right) - which will really help some
teams who are hit with injuries and such mid-season, and, of course, will
reduce that long layoff before bowl games.  And that extra week of national
attention won't hurt Big Ten teams' chances at the national championship
either (although this year in the season of the upset OSU was arguably much
better off sitting at home watching everyone else lose).

Here's another article from up in Wisconsin:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=694461

It also mentions that the Big Ten Network and cable companies (Comcast) are
actually in negotiations now (I assume that the ratings/results from the
football season will lead one side or the other to take action).  We'll see
where that goes, although I'm not holding my breath for anything.

Jonathan

PS: that 2001 NU vs. Illinois game was ON Thanksgiving - and I was surprised
how many people were in attendance given that the game was on turkey day (I
was there with a group from NUMB) for Illinois' Big Ten title clincher
(although NU made it a pretty close game 28-34).  That game was moved with
special permission because, for some reason, the state scheduled its high
school championship games in Champaign the previous weekend.

On Dec 10, 2007 10:36 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) <sjtruog at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Saw on ESPN that the Big Ten approved an additional
> bye week to the football schedule, allowing games to
> be played after Thanksgiving next year.
>
> It's probably a good move - you could see the need for
> it with the week after Thanksgiving and the title game
> week making a season that ended before then long
> forgotten. It helped this year, but this was an
> extraordinary year in many respects. Without a title
> game, the league needed to do something like this.
>
> This will likely hurt the ACC and Big East, who used
> to use our absence to get on ESPN (NU alum had that
> great line in his SI column the week after
> Thanksgiving this year about dreaming of a Saturday
> morning and finding nothing but ACC football on TV ...
> then waking up to find it a reality :) ). Maybe the
> Big Ten will move times (and days?) around a bit for
> BTN or other TV options. Maybe a Thanksgiving night
> game? Friday game?
>
> I know some fans won't like it, but I can remember two
> post-Turkey day games. The NU-Illinois 2001 game was
> probably the "case against" the move, with the game in
> Champaign on a Friday, with the Illini playing for a
> Big Ten title, and half the seats empty. It was fun to
> have family in town for turkey, wake up the next
> morning and pack the tailgate gear for a short (yet
> dull:) ) drive down to Champaign for the game - but
> the atmosphere left a lot to be desired.
>
> The "case for" was in 1997 (or 98?) when we went out
> to Happy Valley to visit my brother for Thanksgiving
> and saw the PSU-MSU game. Turkey Day itself was
> bizarre as State College was a ghost town with dorms
> closed and no one in town. But things picked up by
> Saturday and as usual, State College was buzzing for
> game day and it was a perfect place for some holiday
> weekend fun, festivities and football (but then again,
> any gameday weekend at PSU seems like a little holiday
> event).
>
> We'll see how it works. We pretty much had to do it
> and I'm sure the coaches and teams will appreciate the
> bye week again during the season to rest up. Plus,
> another weekend of Big Ten football can't be a bad
> thing, right?
>
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
>
> * * * * * * * * *
> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
> sjtruog at yahoo.com
> GO CATS!!!
>
>
>
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
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