Traditionally, Friday nights during the fall have belonged to high school football, Saturdays to college football and Sundays to the NFL.
Sure, at times the occasional college football game has been played on Sundays — prior to the start of the NFL season — and, yes the NFL has held games on Saturday here and there, particularly late in the season after college football has wound down.
Prior to the last 10 years or so, while Friday night college football happened, it was rare, though that has changed recently, with Friday nights ceasing to be reserved solely for high school football. College football programing has made regular inroads on Friday nights and if Fox Sports has its way, Friday night college football is going to get even bigger going forward.
The network announced Thursday that it is going to expand its coverage of college football with a package of Friday night games starting next season.
The games will include matchups from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Mountain West conferences and will include some of the biggest matchups of the weekend — a Friday night equivalent to Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff on Saturdays.
“Fox is football, and our new Friday night package will make Fox the leader in America’s game throughout the weekend,” said Michael Mulvihill, Fox president of insight and analytics, in a statement. “We’ve built our collegiate business by seizing opportunities in previously underutilized timeslots, first with ‘Big Noon Saturday’ and now on Friday nights. Our goal this fall is to have the No. 1 college football game on both Fridays and Saturdays and the top NFL game on Sundays.”
Details as to which notable games will be played on Friday nights aren’t known at this time, with The Athletic reporting that Fox’s first primetime Friday night matchup “is still to be determined because the television schedule, coordinated with the other networks, does not take place until May.”
The news wasn’t completely unexpected, as Fox did not renew the right for WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown. Per The Athletic, Fox Sports executives “believe the college game will produce higher ratings than WWE.”
Fans of college football in Utah have become accustomed to Friday night college football, though Fox’s announcement could mean even more late-night games on Fridays.
Utah, BYU and Utah State — in the Big 12 and MW, respectively — are slated to play potentially four Friday night games in 2024, with the Cougars and Utes possibly playing two Friday night games each. Utah State isn’t slated to play anything but Saturday games this upcoming season.