Troy Dannen sends letter to Big Ten, requests Nebraska not host Friday games except over Thanksgiving
Friday night, Nebraska and Illinois played in the most-watched Friday college football game of the year. The university canceled in-person classes for the day before another packed crowd arrived at Memorial Stadium – a decision that led Troy Dannen to send a letter to the Big Ten and commissioner Tony Petitti.
Dannen requested Nebraska no longer host games on Fridays outside of Black Friday, which is traditionally when the Cornhuskers play their rivalry matchup against Iowa. He confirmed the letter during the monthly AD Show segment of Sports Nightly on the Husker Radio Network Tuesday night.
Dannen said he didn’t want football games disrupting classes. Considering there are 90,000 seats in Memorial Stadium, home games create congestion on campus while students are trying to get to class on time.
“The university canceled in-person classes on Friday, and I sent a letter yesterday to the commissioner with the blessing of the president and the chancellor formally requesting not to host Friday games – outside Thanksgiving every other year, the game with Iowa,” Dannen said.
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“Because of the size of the stadium and your locale, I don’t think we want to be canceling classes, canceling in-person classes. I’m sure the students didn’t mind, but at the end of the day, the more we can avoid that, I think the better off everybody will be.”
Troy Dannen: ‘I raised my hand with the commissioner’
Some Big Ten athletic directors made their thoughts clear on Friday night games. Michigan AD Warde Manuel was emphatic when he said the Wolverines wouldn’t host such matchups. Michigan State’s Alan Haller said while he understands the popularity of the Friday games, he didn’t necessarily want to to host them.
Dannen followed a similar approach to Haller. While Nebraska could host future Friday night contests, he said he at least wanted to make his voice heard by reaching out to the commissioner’s office.
“If it happens again, it happens again,” Dannen said. “I don’t like seeing other athletic directors in the league saying, ‘My golly, we will not do that,’ and [lay] their foot down. I’m not sure any institutions should have the unilateral ability to do that.
“But if we do, I raised my hand with the commissioner and said Nebraska should be in that same position with 90,000 fans and the proximity we have to campus.”
Nebraska took Illinois to overtime in Week 3 before the Fighting Illini came away with the victory. More than 4.2 million people tuned to FOX for the matchup, which came in as the third most-watched game of the week, according to data compiled by On3.