Fridays should be for preps
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
FRESNO, Calif. — Looking at the people in the stands here today who will paint their faces and cover their bodies in school colors, wear pumpkins on their heads or hold up signs, you realize some folks will do almost anything to get on television.
Sort of like Fresno State and Hawai'i, the two schools who play on ESPN2 today.
There are a handful of good reasons not to play on Friday nights and just one reason to do it at all: desperation for television exposure.
It is that last reason that brings UH and Fresno together at 3 p.m. (Hawai'i time) on a Friday for a second consecutive year.
Traditionally, Friday has been the one night of the week on the football calendar that belonged to the high schools. The NFL had Sundays and Mondays. Colleges had Saturdays and, on occasion in recent years, Thursdays.
But that understanding ended last year when the colleges, at the behest of TV, sought and won NCAA approval to plow new ground at the expense of both high schools and their own class time.
For the so-called mid-major conferences such as the Western Athletic Conference, Conference USA and Mountain West, it was an end run around the Bowl Championship Series conferences who largely monopolized the tube on Saturday.
Playing on Fridays has afforded them TV opportunities and visibility they wouldn't otherwise receive, though the TV rights fees in some cases do not pay for the dropoff in crowds. ESPN2 says its Friday games this year have drawn an average of 1.39 million households with the Sept. 6th UH-Brigham Young game having drawn 1.55 million.
That's been recognition for the schools as a whole and visibility for the football teams before potential recruits, which is why Fresno has volunteered to appear four times this season — a third of its schedule — and UH twice.
To do it, FSU has taken a hit at the gate. Consider that it sold out for then-winless Southern Methodist on a Saturday but didn't fill Bulldog Stadium for nationally ranked Colorado State on a Friday and doesn't expect to sell out for UH today, either.
Meanwhile, the high schools, who depend on football to pay their freight for most of their 20-something sports, have been patient and supportive with area colleges, in the case of Hawai'i even giving up a date last year so UH and Fresno could play on a Friday evening for ESPN. But, increasingly they are also feeling the impact on their own crowds and rightfully growing concerned.
The O'ahu Interscholastic Association playoffs will continue tonight at 5 p.m. at Aloha Stadium, probably around the time UH is kicking off the second half with Fresno on TV, and state high school officials are concerned about the potential impact of the UH game.
Sharing Fridays once a year is one thing, but if the colleges are going to put down roots, it is time they considered giving something back to the high schools.
