Friday Night Lights for Boise State
Blog By: Rick Worthington
The latest TV schedule for the Mountain West has been announced, and once again this year, Boise State will have a prominent position on Friday night. The Broncos’ home games against both Marshall (Friday, Sept. 6) and Air Force (Friday, Sept. 20) will kick at 7 p.m., and the regular-season finale the day after Thanksgiving at Colorado State (Friday, Nov. 29) will kick at 1:30 p.m.
I’ll be honest, I know it’s not real popular with season ticket holders, but I’m a big fan of the Boise State Friday Night games.
There are just too many positives to ignore. A captive audience all over the country is a good thing for the team, especially when the Broncos are crushing the opponent they are playing. Players also LOVE IT when they get good exposure, and Friday night is a good time to be seen when there are no other college games being played on TV.
Fans also get the rest of the weekend to do other things. I mean, for any parent, you know how hard it is to find time on Saturday for anything except your kids activities. If you own a boat or an RV, a Friday night game allows you to pull out early on Saturday morning, and still get plenty of time wherever you are headed. Simply put, McCall is not out of the question for Saturday and Sunday when the Broncos play on Friday night!
The paycheck BSU gets for playing on TV is nice too, but that alone is not a big factor for me. If we are talking about ME, as the host of Bronco Gamenight, I would sure rather not do a show starting at 12:30am on Saturday morning following the Bronco Post-game show. Again – that’s just me – but having a free Saturday makes up for it pretty quick.
The only thing that really could make Friday night look bad – is when the TV audience sees empty seats in Albertson’s Stadium. Sadly, that has happened on a few occasions. That happens on Saturday night games too, and it’s not just a Boise State issue.
Speaking of night games, that is also going to be the “norm” for the Broncos. The meetings at UNLV (Oct. 5; 8:30 p.m. MT), at San Jose State (Nov. 2; 8:30 p.m. MT) and at Utah State (Nov. 23; 8:30 p.m.) will each kick late at night on Saturday.
Boise State’s remaining four home games – against Portland State (Sept. 14), Hawai’i (Oct. 12), Wyoming (Nov. 9) and New Mexico (Nov. 16) – will kick on a Saturday, with times to be determined, generally within a 12-day window.
Just remember – you can hear all the games – no matter where you go – on 670 KBOI and KBOI.com.
