Are Mid-Week Games Compromising the Student Athlete Experience?

I was looking at this week’s college football schedule and realized that there is at least one game every day from Wednesday through Saturday. My first thought was “hell yeah, Wednesday is the new Saturday!” However, after some reflection I came to the conclusion that mid-week game scheduling is student-athlete exploitation at its finest. The landmark case University of Oklahoma, et al vs. NCAA in the fall of 1984 started the “Television Age” in college football. As a disclaimer: I understand that I am only touching the tip of the iceberg regarding student-athlete issues and the NCAA, I am sympathetic to the student athlete cause but for time sake I will only discuss how television can have a negative impact on the student athlete experience at any particular university. What the OU vs. NCAA case meant for the student athlete and football fans alike was that the NCAA could no longer limit the number of appearances an individual school could have on television each year. Furthermore, it led to the present schedule that sports fans are now used to the “Thursday, Friday, and Saturday” games every week. Another side effect most may not realize was a result of this case is conference realignment. Conferences both grew and crumbled because of the lucrative nature of the television contracts in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. This “rat race” for money is what led to the “Super Conferences” we are now used too. The more teams in a conference, the more lucrative the TV contract. This started with Arkansas leaving the SWC for the greener pastures of the SEC. This move was based largely on Arkansas wanting a piece of the “television revenue pie” so to speak. The remaining teams in the SWC either joined the Big 8 to form the Big 12 or were banished to smaller conferences. These moves in the early 1990s led to the current BCS system we have in place at the moment. Now back to the point. Here is a list of mid-week games this week.

Wednesday, September 17: Kansas State at Louisville

Thursday, September 18: No. 21 West Virginia at Colorado

Friday, September 19: Baylor at Connecticut

The focus here is money and not facilitating the best possible experience for the student athletes involved. I am sure that Kansas State practiced all weekend in order to prepare for their game at Louisville today. This takes away from the players’ ability to use their bye weekend off to catch up on their studies. Kansas State probably flew to Louisville Tuesday in order to play Wednesday. Which means that KSU players will miss not one but two days of classes in order to play this game “for the fans.” Lastly, all three of the previously mentioned games start at 8 p.m. Eastern time so that viewers can get home from work and be comfortable when the game comes on. What you don’t realize when you are enjoying the game during the evening is that it will probably take 3-4 hours to play, then the away team has to fly back home arriving around 5-6 the next morning, and therefore keeping the athletes from getting to bed until a late hour. Even if the game is either home or away, the time factor for these games must surely have an impact on the classes the student athlete has the next day. I looked at each of the above teams’ schedule and they will have no less than an 8 day layoff before their next day, giving them more than a standard break after this weeks game But has the NCAA become so shrouded with the revenues made in conjunction with the major television providers that the student athlete is no longer taken into consideration when planning the season? The traditional Saturday game has the least impact on the student athlete trying to earn a degree, a factor that must be kept in mind during the scheduling process. Not to mention that all players involved are amateurs and have numerous responsibilities outside of football and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday games do not take this into consideration at all. So the next time you enjoy a game you probably did not even know was coming on early in the week, take a second to ponder the “bigger picture”, then sit back and enjoy the game because this trend will only increase in the future.

Peace, Political Linus