Michigan AD Warde Manuel’s adamant stance on Big Ten move
Anyone who has been paying attention is aware that the college sports landscape has changed quite drastically. The transfer portal and NIL are the obvious culprits, but a new slate of TV deals have also altered the way that fans consume the game. Some changes are minor and were met with little resistance, like the SEC moving to ESPN after spending 27 seasons on CBS. Other changes, like the Big Ten calendar including Friday night games, isn’t going over so well with some schools, including the defending National Champion Michigan Wolverines.
As part of the Big Ten’s new media rights contract — an $8.05 billion deal with FOX, CBS, NBC and the Big Ten Network — 16 games involving Big Ten teams will air on Friday nights this season. However, you won’t be seeing the Wolverines in any of those 16 contests. University of Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel made sure of it.
“Absolutely, absolutely not to Friday night,” Manuel said earlier this week on the ‘Conqur’ing Heroes’ podcast, per Aaron McMann of Michigan Live. “We are not having a Friday night game. I’ll just leave it at that.”
12 different Big Ten teams will be playing at least one Friday night league game on FOX this fall, but Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State will all avoid the Friday slate.
One of the other requests that the University of Michigan has made to the Big Ten Conference and their media rights partners has been not to have more than two Saturday night home games each season. With various high profile windows each Saturday, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
“I understand television would like us to do it, I understand primetime gets a lot of coverage, but also ‘Big Noon (Kickoff)’ gets a lot of coverage and we’re happy with that,” Warde Manuel reiterated. “And when we’re on at 3:30 on CBS, they get a lot of coverage. In other words, our fanbase is important to me, important to Sherrone, and to our staff, our student-athletes. We want (to make sure) our fanbase has an opportunity to see us in person.”
Michigan opened their season with a primetime home win over Fresno State. Their next game, a top ten clash with the 3rd-ranked Texas Longhorns, will be a Big Noon Kickoff game on FOX. Much of the remainder of Michigan’s TV schedule remains undetermined, but we do know that when the Wolverines face rival Ohio State on November 30th, that game will be a noon kickoff on FOX as well.
The post Michigan AD Warde Manuel’s adamant stance on Big Ten move appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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