Thursday Night Football a winner
ABC a couple of years ago came up with a new concept. A college football game of the week, set on Saturday night. It’s called Saturday Night College Football. Or is it College Football Saturday Night?
I don’t know, and that’s the point. It hasn’t taken hold as a franchise, and here’s why.
1. ABC has not gotten the best games in that time slot. Sometimes it does, but tonight is Nebraska-Virginia Tech or Penn State-Illinois, depending on where you live. Not bad games, but compared to Georgia-Alabama, which will run simultaneously on ESPN?
2. If Saturday Night Football is so special, why have regional games? If ABC made it a national telecast, that would make it different from the onslaught of regional games we see.
3. Saturday Night Football fails on the surface, because at any given time during the telecast, there are at least three other games available. Tonight, for example, you can also see Georgia-Alabama, OU-TCU and Mississippi State-LSU when Nebraska-VPI is staged, plus North Carolina State-South Florida, if you’ve got ESPNU. It’s just another football game.
Which brings us back to last Thursday night, when ESPN showed us Oregon State’s upset of USC. An epic upset, a dramatic game, Chris Fowler in the broadcast booth.
Thursday Night Football has become the sport’s marquee telecast of the week. That’s when all American college football fans watch. Saturdays are too packed with games; players, coaches and fans are needed elsewhere on Saturdays. But not on Thursday nights.
That’s what the NFL found with Monday Night Football. The whole danged league has watched on Monday night for almost 40 years, because that game has the attention all to itself.
Thursday Night Football doesn’t always have a super game, because a huge batch of schools don’t want to host games on Thursday, either for fan reasons or competitive reasons, or both. For instance, ESPN wanted OSU-Texas A&M to be played on Thursday, Oct. 2, and A&M agreed, but OSU declined, citing several reasons. Fans. The possibility that A&M might move its game against Army, which will be played today, up a week, giving the Aggies more time to prepare for the Cowboys. All of which are valid reasons.
But if schools want the spotlight, Thursday night is the ticket. It’s not likely that USC or OU or Alabama or Michigan will move a home game off Saturday. But some schools have found it to their benefit.
Think about the rewards Oregon State reaped Thursday night. The Beavers had a packed house, everyone wearing orange, and their students flooded the field after the upset. That had to be a great recruiting tool for the school. And what could be a better selling point for Oregon State football, in terms of attracting athletes, than knocking the snot out of Southern Cal?
Here are the Thursday night games this season:
Week 1: North Carolina State at South Carolina & Oregon State at Stanford (doubleheader). Steve Spurrier is a draw, but these weren’t great matchups.
Week 2: South Carolina at Vanderbilt. Not bad. Offers the chance of an upset, and Vandy produced.
Week 3: North Carolina at Rutgers. Limited appeal. The Friday night matchup — which is whole other story — was much better. Kansas at South Florida. But Friday nights are not as glamorous as Thursday night, because people are much busier on Friday night, and few schools want to be indicted for infringing on high schools’ night.
Week 4: West Virginia at Colorado. Model Friday night game. Big-time opponent at a solid school, with the possibility of an upset. Colorado is the kind of school that can embrace Thursday night, since the Buffs don’t draw 90,000 fans anyway. CU pulled the upset, and it made for a great, great telecast.
Week 5: USC at Oregon State. Perfect Thursday night game. Get one of the giants on, in a precarious spot. Examples of potential Thursday night matchups: Texas at OSU, Ohio State at Purdue, Virginia Tech at Wake Forest. Those kinds of games.
The rest of the year has these Thursday night matchups:
Pitt at South Florida (so-so);
Clemson at Wake Forest (great matchup);
Florida State at North Carolina State (would be better if Seminoles didn’t stink);
Auburn at West Virginia (excellent);
South Florida at Cincinnati (let’s not go overboard on USF);
Maryland at Virginia Tech (at Maryland would be better);
Virginia Tech at Miami (interesting game, but be careful of turning this into the Hokie Network);
Miami at Georgia Tech (not bad);
Texas A&M at Texas (Thanksgiving special; now we’re talking);
And Louisville at Rutgers (not a lot of games to choose from).
A decent menu of games. Could be better, and will be as the status of Thursday Night Football rises.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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why would at maryland be better?