Friday Night Lights

Okay, you’ve all heard by now that OSU is playing Iowa State on the road on a Friday night in late November. It’s going to be about 8 degrees with the wind whipping around Ames at about 39 MPH. Heck, there’s even a chance for snow!

My question: what are we doing here?

I keep hearing this very meta argument of “well, being on TV is always better than not being on TV.”

Okay, I guess that’s true. By playing on ESPN2 OSU gets a bump in the bottom line of a couple hundred thousand dollars, or what we like to call “what Boone Pickens carries in his wallet on any given day.”

But at what cost is this profit coming?

It’s not like any potential high school athletes are going to be watching (most of the good ones will be playing in the playoffs this night) and the allure of the decorated Thursday night game (primetime on ESPN, only thing on TV, Erin and the gang in town) doesn’t apply.

Friday night is a terrible night for college football and the team is being put in a horrid position (freezing cold game on the road) on a day they haven’t exactly succeeded in (loss in ’07, scared to death for a half in ’10). All for a couple hundred thou? Can’t Boone just sell a few stocks instead?

But the exposure, Pistolsguy, the exposure is why they moved the game.

What exposure? We’ve already established that few high schoolers are going to be able to watch, in fact, the only people who will watch are going to be me, 50,000 of my OSU-loving friends, and a fistful of degenerate gamblers who either 1.) have money on a nasty OSU team to cover 21.5 or 2.) have a horse still in the Heisman race late in November (both advantageous situations for OSU fans by the way).

I simply don’t understand who or what OSU is trying to be here. Are we a national powerhouse, or is that the trajectory we’re aiming for? If so, one must pose the question: would Texas play on the road on a Friday night in November? How about Alabama? Georgia? Crap, what about Auburn?

If that’s not what we’re trying to be, if we want to be Boise or TCU instead, then I’m fine with that. But we need to choose. And switching a standard Saturday afternoon three-touchdown take-care-of-business outing to a frightening could-ruin-perfection Friday night affair doesn’t exactly scream “we’re competing for a title!!”

But that’s just me…