ESPN/ABC has released their initial Thursday/Friday night schedule of games and somewhere Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins is smiling. The Colorado Buffaloes currently are not slated to play any of those ESPN Thursday night games that Hawkins hates so much. Last year, the Buffs played a Sunday game, two Thursday games and two Friday games, all of which resulted in Buff losses, three of which were on the road and three against ranked opponents. Colorado was still only 3 - 4 on Saturday in 2009. Although not on the initial schedule released, Colorado will still most likely be playing Nebraska the day after Thanksgiving which unfortunately falls on a Friday...and on the road.
Here is what Dan Hawkins had to say five times last year in his disapproval of all the non-Saturday 1:30 pm games noy in sunny but cool weather home games:
"You take the schedule the way it comes,'' Hawkins said. "We've got a Sunday night game, a couple Thursdays, a Friday. I don't think we get into too much whether it's good or bad. You play it like it is.
"I've said before many times, I'd love to play every game we play on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 in our stadium. But you don't always get it like that. You have to roll with it.''
All of us can remember how we felt losing getting blown out by Toledo Friday, September 11th on ESPN last year so I assume many Buff fans aren't saddened by the news. But while their might be a competitive advantage to playing games on Saturday at 1:30 pm, one thing Buff fans can't complain about the past few years, was Mike Bohn's ability to get games on television. Colorado was one of the most televised teams in the nation last year.
Dan Hawkins may have gotten his wish but it might come at a cost of lost television money and the continued movement toward being irrelevant. Colorado plays a tough non-conference schedule next year so it is possible for all four of those games to televised (Colorado State, Hawaii, Georgia and California) but contests against Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Baylor might be skipped over by the networks, especially if the Buffs get off to a slow start like they did a year ago.
Now if we can get those road games off the schedule!