Hawkeye Football was meant for Saturdays, we’ll pass on the Friday Night Lights

When are we supposed to tailgate

Going into the 2017-2018 college football season, the Big Ten announced that they would be moving some conference games to a Friday night kickoff to allow more games to be televised. Currently, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois, Maryland and Northwestern are all scheduled to debut the Big Ten Friday Primetime schedule. Iowa has been left off the list for now, and if Iowa lawmakers have any say, they’ll be left off the list forever. So here are just few reasons why Hawkeye football should stay on Saturday’s this fall.

High School Friday Night Lights

High school football has a longstanding tradition in the state of Iowa, and moving U of I football games to Friday night forces people to choose between the two. Parents, high school athletes and fans alike would have to either skip their hometown high school game, or miss a crucial Iowa football game in Kinnick. Not only would this move hurt high school football fans, but it would most likely lower BTN’s viewer ratings for Iowa games scheduled during high school football season.

Tailgating

One (true) stereotype of Iowa football fans is that we tend to start tailgating before the sun rises and keep going until kickoff. Moving games to Friday’s eliminates this important aspect of the Iowa football experience. Most fans have work all day on Friday’s, and most students have class during the day. One thing’s for certain: if Iowa does ever play on Friday nights, there will be a dip in Friday lecture attendance and Friday “sick days” will skyrocket.

Tradition

Football in the state of Iowa has remained the same for years, and it’s because we like it the way it is. Get off work Friday, head to the local high school to catch a game, get to bed early and rise even earlier, just in time to tailgate before heading to Kinnick. Had we wanted to move Hawkeye football to Friday, we’d have done it already. When it comes down to it, the Big Ten only wants to move college football to Friday’s so that their ratings will go up, but we fans would prefer to keep our Hawkeye tradition strong from August to December.

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