Clemson fans unhappy about Friday game and other links

Friday night high school football is a big deal in many parts of the country. So as College Football expands into Fridays, some high schools are worried about their own attendance. The only silver lining for Clemson area high schools is that Clemson's Friday game is at BC. That means Clemson game day traffic won't impact their games.

This is sort of a blast from the past...with Tampa promoting Dirk Koetter to head coach, the media decided to retrace some of his steps and interviewed Dan Henning about his former pupil. Reading the piece you can see why Henning was doomed at BC. He's a great play caller, but not a manager.

Tyler Murphy signed with the Miami Dolphins. They will be using him as a Wide Receiver.

BC pulling out all the stops for Friday night

The NFL killed the importance of College Football's Thursday Night Games. ESPN -- with the help of conference partners like the ACC -- is trying to turn Friday Night into the new event. BC bought in early, agreeing to be part of Friday night games contractually. And now the school is going all out as host of this Friday Night's game against Florida State.

-- First (as speculated) BC will wear their red bandanna inspired uniforms. BC will also hand out red bandannas to the first 25,000 fans in attendance. 

-- The 6 PM ET SportsCenter will focus on the game and have at least one ESPN reporter outside of Gate E. I have no idea if this will be a set with a stage or just one reporter with a camera crew. Regardless, all you students, makes signs, make noise and get on TV. We are unlikely to get GameDay this year, so this is it. BC clever and be respectful. Earlier in the day First Take will broadcast live from Gasson. Make noise there too. [Update: First Take cancelled]

-- Tim and Elisabeth Hasselbeck will be honored during the game.

-- Finally, TOB and members of the 2005 team will also be honored. This will be TOB's first football game in Alumni since his retirement. I will be very interested to hear the crowd reaction.

Of course, this being a Friday night game and with a significant portion of our fanbase in the New York area, attendance will be an issue. While the last-minute marketing might add a few thousand more people, I don't expect a sellout. But doing all this for a Friday Night Game is good long-term planning. Make all Friday Night Games an event. Then when people see the schedule months in advance they will make an effort to get back to Boston just for a Friday game. 

Friday night ticket blues

As pointed out on EO, BC broke out the Groupon promotions for this game. As we've pointed out before, discounting tickets becomes a tricky proposition as BC balances the need for revenue, butts in the seats and their relationship with their most loyal fans.

For a business like BC football -- which only has limited inventory of seven home games -- I am against discounting/flash deals. I think the Athletic Department is better off doing private promotions with current season ticket holders for undersold games. BC does that somewhat, but obviously not to the point where the game will be close to capacity.

The second issue is attendance on non-Saturday games. In theory, the Boston population should be more than enough to support the team, but we know that a good chunk of the fanbase comes from beyond a two hour radius. A weeknight home game becomes tough for those who don't live close. The weeknight and Friday night games are not going away. So perhaps BC should start tarping sections of the stadium for those non-Saturday games. Northwestern -- another private school in a big city -- started tarping this year using potted plants.

For the longest time the limited secondary market for BC tickets helped sales and attendance. But as TV coverage has improved and as the number of home games has shifted from five and six to seven (and eight if you count the game in Foxboro), and as the online market place has enabled all sorts of reselling, BC is stuck. They are not the only college with the problem. Video boards and winning football will help. Incentives for students and season ticket holders will help too. But at some point they have to draw the line. Maybe instead of dumping tickets for Friday games, BC should think about living with the empty seats.

Or as I've written about before -- turn Friday night games into a huge deal. Own it like Virginia Tech used to own Thursday nights. Then maybe good football, a new tradition and a pumped up environment might make the night a consistent sellout.

What the ACC's new TV deal means

The ACC and ESPN announced a revised TV deal today. It extends and enriches the current deal until 2027. This was overdue since the market has shifted in the two years since the ACC and ESPN last signed. In 2010, the ACC's deal was second only to the SEC. Since then the Big Ten and Pac 12 received monster deals and the Big 12 is also expected to sign a huge deal. One of the big reasons the Conference added Syracuse and Pitt was to trigger a clause that allowed for renegotiation. Under the new deal each team will receive $17 million annually. Here are the big (and somewhat expected) changes:

Friday Night Lights I've been saying for a long time that this was coming. Not only will the ACC be playing on Friday nights, but BC will be at the center piece of this. Why? Because it makes too much sense not to play in those games. The WAC and Big East have been playing on Fridays for at least five years now and getting big ratings. With the NFL invading Thursdays and with the Pac 12 and SEC willing to play on Thursdays, Friday is now one of the lone spots where the ACC can get true national attention. The argument against playing Fridays is that the coaches lose a chance to watch high school games and that it is tough to fill your stadiums. I think the branding tradeoff is worth it for BC. Maybe we can even turn Friday nights into events and extend tailgating hours.

Under the deal, BC will host a game annually on a Friday. Syracuse will also host a annual Friday game too. Plus the conference committed an annual game on the Friday after Thanksgiving. So in some years BC could be playing in as many as three Friday games (at home, at Syracuse and at another ACC team on Thanksgiving weekend).

18-game basketball schedule The ACC already announced this plan, but now ESPN is officially paying a premium for the extra two conference games. The extra games help our wallet and RPI ratings but hurt scheduling flexibility. We will see fewer non-conference games.

A place at the table This is not in the contract but implied in the deal. Right now the ACC is the only major conference that has all of its media rights tied to ESPN. ESPN will be a driving factor in the evolving bowl and playoff scenarios. There is no way they are going to devalue all this ACC inventory by have the ACC shunned from the championships. If automatic qualifiers are part of the playoff, the ACC will be included.

I would prefer that the ACC had its own outlet like the other conferences. Being so aligned with ESPN limits some cool opportunities, but it is a great insurance policy. This deal offers short-term cash and stability and will probably be adjusted within the next five years.

BC on TV (and Hulu)

The Friday Night Lights episode filmed on campus last year finally aired this week. You can now view it online. Although I saw the movie and heard good things about the series, this will probably be the first and last episode of FNL that I watch. I guess I am just desperate to see football and BC anywhere. At times I wish I could fast forward the summer so that football will be on again.