Football: Crowded Oct. 8 schedule could spell disaster

Daily Advertiser August 11, 2010

As you peel back the layers of any controversy, each one doesn’t have to include a good guy and a bad guy.

Take the evening of Friday, Oct. 8, for instance.

Oh, what a strong possibility that a tangled web will be weaved that night.

It’s a Friday night in the middle of the fall in South Louisiana. So what does that mean? High school football, right?

Certainly, but that doesn’t tell the whole story about this night. If you happened to take a peek at ESPN’s schedule of college football games for the upcoming season, that night of Oct. 8 wouldn’t be empty.

In fact, you would notice a very familiar school’s name. Indeed, UL is scheduled to host Oklahoma State of the powerhouse Big 12 that night on ESPN2.

The game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., which figures to be right about halftime for most of the high school football games around the area that night.

Uggghhh.

I’m not sure even Lucy on her best day could offer Chuck a workable solution for this quandary.

UL Senior Associate Athletics Director Scott Farmer certainly understands the conflict.

He knows how protective high school coaches and principals are of Friday night football.

"I agree with them," Farmer said. "I’m old-school. I think Friday nights should be reserved for high school football. We want people to understand that this wasn’t anything that UL wanted to do or asked for. This wasn’t something that we approached ESPN with. This isn’t something that’s going to be a trend. We want Friday nights to be reserved for the high schools."

In fact, the game was originally scheduled for another weekend. But when ESPN came to the Sun Belt Conference and offered that UL could host Oklahoma State on national TV, there just wasn’t any turning down such an opportunity.

Just try to picture the scene. UL beats Oklahoma State in the only college football game in the nation that night. The Cajuns would be one of the lead stories on ESPN’s SportsCenter, and perhaps be featured in "the top play or two of the top plays" of the night.

Before you say such an upset is too long of a shot to seriously consider, remember that Oklahoma State isn’t picked to finish any higher than Kansas State was a year ago and the Wildcats lost at Cajun Field last fall.

As exciting of an upside as that could be, the potential downside isn’t real promising. Not only could UL lose the game, but it could do so on national TV in front of a sparse crowd.

The competition with prep football is one aspect. Let’s hope the weather is good that night, because that’ll likely convince some to just tune into ESPN2.

Then there’s another obstacle. Friday, Oct. 8 just happens to be the first night of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles in the Hub City.

Double Uggghh.

Farmer and the rest of his office understand all of these issues. They’ve worked a deal with Festivals Acadiens where the boudin-cutting to kick off the weekend celebration will be done on ESPN2 as part of the UL game’s tailgating.

Obviously, nothing can be done about the weather, but UL officials have contacted some high school coaches in at attempt to avoid some of the conflict.

Those coaches were offered the use of Cajun Field rent-free on either the Thursday night or the Saturday night, Oct. 9. The home team would get the entire gate, although the concessions are contracted out at Cajun Field. Schools were also asked if starting their games at 5 or 6 p.m. to reduce the conflict with UL’s 8 p.m. start would be considered.

While those gestures were certainly good thoughts, the responses are complicated as well. As the schedule turned out, there are only two Lafayette Parish teams with home games that night. One is Acadiana High and it’s the Rams’ homecoming game against LaGrange, so that’s not an option.

The second one is Northside at Teurlings Catholic, scheduled for Clark Field. Teurlings officials certainly listened to UL’s offer. The problem is that both schools are already in the middle of district play at that time.

To play on Thursday would be volunteering to have one less day of practice for what could end up being the game to decide the District 6-4A title. To play on the Saturday would be volunteering for a short week going into the next week, which has Teurlings at Lafayette High and Northside hosting Breaux Bridge.

Other coaches I talked to discussed such issues as school organizations, like the band, relying heavily on concession stand proceeds at home games.

And let’s face it, most coaches are creatures of habit. Short practice weeks are just not something that’s in their DNA to volunteer for.

The bottom line is that it’s just not a good situation for any of the parties involved.

At first glance, UL’s got a lot to gain and possibly a lot to lose by being pressured into playing this game on Friday night.

Farmer said if none of the contigency plans come to pass, all UL can do is "pull out all the stops in promoting the game," and just hope for the best.

In a really complicated situation.