Prep football folks not happy about possibility of Big Ten football on Fridays

Let's just say the possibility of Friday Night Lights, Big Ten style is not appealing to the prep football community."Disappointing for me to hear," said Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth."That bites," said Iowa City Regina Coach Marv Cook.Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany is floating the idea of his league playing a game each Friday night. It's about television money, of course, with some network likely to shell out millions of dollars.But high school coaches and administrators worry the Big Ten's financial gain could be their loss. They see gates decreasing if football fans are forced to choose, for instance, between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Linn-Mar Lions or Iowa City West Trojans."I don't think there's any doubt it would affect gates," said Forsyth, who was a graduate assistant coach at Iowa. "To me, Friday nights in the fall are high school football nights. I'd hate to think that could change.""Very concerning, no doubt," said Iowa City High Coach Dan Sabers. "What, they don't make enough money as it is? You've got college coaches making millions of dollars a year, and we've got to scrap like hell to find 500 bucks for a coach just to help every out (a staff)."West Athletics Director Scott Kibby said he purposely schedules junior varsity football games, played on Saturdays, around Iowa's schedule. No home JV games on Iowa home game Saturdays.He can't imagine what would happen if West had a home game the same Friday night the Hawkeyes did. He pointed out schools don't have control over schedules anymore, with the Iowa High School Athletic Association taking that over when the Mississippi Valley and Mississippi Athletic Conferences recently decided to go the district football route.How about the remote possibility West, Iowa City High and Iowa City Regina would all have home games on a Friday night that Iowa also would?"We have so many families at West involved with the university," he said. "We work very hard to avoid conflicts."It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Kibby was very curious if Friday Night Lights, Big Ten style could happen as soon as next season."I've got to believe that this was just an initial thought and they'll eventually come to their senses and realize they just can't do that," Sabers said. "Football has enough problems as it is, with concussions and things. This is a time when we should be coming together at all levels.""You know what, if it has to happen, what can you do about it?" he said. "Just grin and bear it."