Friday nights are happening in the Big Ten

Ready or not, and most of you probably are not, Friday night football is coming to the Big Ten.

League commissioner Jim Delany told the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday that the Big Ten's new television agreements will include a package of six prime-time Friday games starting next season.

The selected games will be revealed this week. Delany told the Tribune there will be three conference games and three non-league games in September and October. No team will play more than twice.

The move creates a new broadcast window for next season, when the B1G cuts up 50 football games between ESPN/ABC and Fox along with the Big Ten Network.

Reaction from athletics directors around the league was tepid. Iowa's Gary Barta said in a statement the UI is open to the idea, but only within certain parameters.

'We have also agreed that we would be willing to occasionally host a Friday night game surrounding Labor Day weekend,' Barta said.

So, a Friday night maybe every other year or so on a weekend that is traditionally a non-conference game. Friday is a sensitive subject with high school games owning the night.

'We truly understand and appreciate the significance surrounding high school football in the state of Iowa,' Barta said. 'Similar to football Saturdays in Iowa City, it is a wonderful opportunity that brings fans together to rally around their school. The Big Ten Conference, like many other conferences, will begin hosting a limited number of Friday football games.'

This could mean two Friday games for the Hawkeyes. Iowa joined the Black Friday tradition with Nebraska when the Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011. Barta said that game is scheduled to continue on Black Friday.

Delany said the league was reluctant to ask schools with mega-stadiums (100,000-plus capacity) to schedule games on Friday nights. Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said OSU will host one of the Friday night games only on a weekend when the school is on its fall semester break in mid-October.

Michigan and Penn State, the other schools with mega-stadiums, said no thanks to hosting Friday night games.

Penn State did agree to play one per year on the road and informed the league it's also 'receptive to an occasional day game on the day after Thanksgiving.'

Michigan was a flat no on the whole Friday night thing.

'Michigan is not scheduled to appear in Friday night football games,' Michigan AD Warde Manuel said in a statement. 'We fully support the Big Ten's scheduling decisions as well as conference peers who are able to play on Friday nights. With our large fan base, Michigan fans and alumni travel significant distances to attend games, making Saturdays our preferred day for all football games.'

Wisconsin's position is similar to Iowa's. UW athletics director Barry Alvarez was hired as an assistant coach by Hayden Fry at Iowa after serving as head coach at Mason City High School.

'At Wisconsin, we are open to hosting games at Camp Randall on the Friday night prior to Labor Day weekend in selected years but have not committed to hosting Friday night games at any other time,' Alvarez said. 'As a former high school and college coach, I have great respect for the tradition and importance of Friday night high school football in the state of Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest. As a conference, we felt it was the right time to explore additional opportunities for exposure on Friday nights on a limited basis.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com