Published: September 20, 2007 11:45 pm         

Friday nights should be for high schools

For the second straight Friday, local fans have to chose whether to watch one of our state’s college powers on TV or go to a high school game.

Oklahoma visits Tulsa tonight in a game to be televised by ESPN2, the network that showed Troy’s 41-23 win over Oklahoma State last week.

Troy and Tulsa can’t be faulted for moving a home game to a Friday night for much-needed national television exposure. They can’t afford to pass up the revenue generated by such a telecast.

The evil at fault here is ESPN for putting a college game opposite high school games. Surely, they could schedule a game on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Conferences like the Sun Belt and Conference USA would be willing to move their games to any time to accommodate television.

The losers are the high schools, who will lose at least some revenue.

“Fridays should be reserved for high schools,” said Enid athletic director Bill Mayberry. “It’s more than the money. These high school kids practice day in and day out. It’s unfortunate people have to make a decision whether to support their high school or their college program.”

Enid and Tulsa Union wisely moved their game to Thursday to avoid such a conflict. Mayberry said the move probably still will affect the gate.

Alva coach Steve Gale said metropolitan schools will be affected more than rural areas, which tend to have a stronger identification with their schools.

But even if the OU-TU game draws 10 to 20 people away, the small schools will feel the bite.

“We survive on gate receipts,” Gale said.

Chisholm coach Dan Maly said he didn’t think the OU game significantly would affect the attendance for tonight’s CHS-Alva game at Longhorn Community Stadium.

Those few people, though, could have an impact on an already tight budget.

“Even if we lose $50 to $75, it’s money that we don’t have,” Maly said. “For public school teams, every dollar counts. Friday nights are for high school football. Saturdays are for college football. They should stay off our night.”

OU coach Bob Stoops said the Sooners never would have a home game on a Friday, at least during the high school regular season.

The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association has done a good job of avoiding conflicts with the Thanksgiving weekend OU-OSU games with its playoff schedule.

The high school players deserve to have the largest crowd possible.

Fans shouldn’t have to choose between watching college football or their favorite high school team. The casual fan likely will choose college.

Let’s hope this is the last time we have to talk about this.



Campbell is a News & Eagle sports writer.