ACC announces Friday night football schedule. Is the league stepping on NC high schools?
Last week, the ACC announced that it would host a league-record 12 college football games on Friday nights in the fall.
In a news release, the league boasted that “no other conference has more scheduled Friday games than the ACC.”
But that move doesn’t sit well with a number of N.C high school football coaches and administrators The Observer spoke with.
Friday night has traditionally been reserved for high school football, and many high school coaches say that their schools are already hurting for funding and football is the largest moneymaker at most schools.
Anything that could detract from attendance — like Bill Belichick coaching on a Friday — isn’t a good thing, especially with college coaches now mainly recruiting from the transfer portal versus going after high school talent.
“It’s just another thing that takes away from the high school boys,” Hough coach Shawn Baker said. “It could also mean you have less (college) coaches coming to games on Friday nights checking out kids in person, which those kids need. Nowadays, if a coach can’t see you, they don’t want you.”
Baker said he has a coach on staff with a son playing college football, and this new ACC schedule could present that coach with a dilemma this fall: Come to work or go see his kid?
“I just think it’s crazy (for the ACC to have games on Friday),” Baker said. “These kids are already getting screwed over (with fewer recruiting opportunities) and there’s going to be a lot of kids who just don’t play ball anymore because of stuff like this. For high school coaches, it’s tough on us as well because we’re doing everything to get these kids recruited but it’s hard to compete with the NCAA. It’s just a lose-lose for the high school kids, if you ask me.”
N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker once worked under former NCHSAA commissioner Charlie Adams, who constantly fought to keep college games off Friday nights in North Carolina.
Tucker said Adams and former ACC Commissioner John Swofford would talk often, and Swofford would always let the NCHSAA know if the ACC was planning to schedule Friday night games.
“At least John would call and say, ‘Listen, we try to avoid it, but I want to let you know what’s going to happen,’” Tucker said. “And it would be a hit-and-miss game here and there. This announcement means there almost isn’t any Friday night throughout the entire season when your high school games will be played without there being an (ACC) game on.”
Tucker said the ACC didn’t call her office about the announcement of the fall schedule. She said these types of announcements and the move away from emphasizing high school recruiting left her feeling one way.
“It’s just frustration,” she said. “But should we be surprised? The college space now almost seems to not really care about the high school space anymore....That makes me very sad.”
Independence football coach DJ McFadden, however, doesn’t think Friday night ACC football will affect the high schools too much. He said most college leagues don’t put their marquee games on Fridays anyway.
“The world’s not stopping to watch Carolina and Cal,” he said. “If you’re going to watch, you’re going to watch, and even then you’re still going to flip channels. I can’t tell you the last time I sat to watch a full Friday night game.”
McFadden thinks the high school and college games attract two totally different audiences.
“If Akron and Ohio are playing on a Friday,” he said, “you’re not going to stop what you’re doing to watch, unless you’re an Akron or Ohio fan.”
South Meck coach Joe Evans, however, thinks the ACC’s move is simply about money, but he hates the league stomping on the tradition of Friday night football.
“I consider myself a true high school guy,” he said, “and I always thought Friday night is high school football night. The NFL is Sunday. Should college play on Sunday and compete with the NFL? Of course not.
“But you have towns that shut down everything for Friday night football. Restaurants close. People get off work early to go tailgate and go to the high school games. The barber shop closes early. It’s a little disheartening (the ACC) chose to play on Friday. It is what it is and it’s all tied up in money. I get it, but do we need to take the one thing that was sacred from the high school kids, their Friday night experience?”
ACC Friday night football schedule
Aug. 29 – Georgia Tech at Colorado; Kennesaw State at Wake Forest
Sept. 5 – James Madison at Louisville
Sept. 12 – Colgate at Syracuse
Sept. 26 – Florida State at Virginia
Oct. 17 – Louisville at Miami
Oct. 17 – North Carolina at California
Oct. 24 – California at Virginia Tech
Oct. 31 – North Carolina at Syracuse
Nov. 14 – Clemson at Louisville
Nov. 21 – Florida State at NC State
Nov. 28 – Georgia at Georgia Tech (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)
