No More Friday Night Games Outside Of Thanksgiving? Troy Dannen Would Be A Fan

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen made an appearance on ‘Sports Nightly’ on Tuesday night.

The key topic touched on for Dannen came in regard to future Friday night games at Nebraska.

Last Friday’s Nebraska-Illinois game drew 4,213,000 viewers on FOX, and it was the most-watched telecast of the day on any network. It was the best performance for a Friday night telecast on FOX in nearly a year, since Game 1 of the 2023 World Series. There were 5,066,000 viewers from 10:15-10:30 p.m. central time, so plenty of eyeballs were watching Nebraska’s second half and overtime.

The national exposure is a great thing for UNL, Dannen said. But the AD said he doesn’t want too many more Friday night games in the future, and he’s letting the Big Ten know it.

“I sent a letter yesterday to the commissioner, with the blessings of the president and chancellor, formerly requesting not to host Friday games outside of Thanksgiving every other year, a game with Iowa,” Dannen said.

Because of Memorial Stadium’s location being next to UNL’s campus, Dannen said he didn’t necessarily like how UNL was forced to go the route of canceling in-person classes.

“Because of the size of the stadium and the locale, I don’t think we want to be canceling in-person classes,” Dannen said. “I’m sure the students didn’t mind, but at the end of the day the more we can avoid that I think the better off everyone will be. So if it happens again, it happens again.”

Dannen also mentioned that he sees other ADs around the conference standing firm with the league on certain stances they have, and he wants to make sure he’s looking out for Nebraska’s best interest as well.

“I don’t like seeing other athletic directors around the league saying, ‘By golly, we will not do that,’ and laying their foot down,” Dannen said. “I’m not sure any institution should have the unilateral ability to do that. But if we do, I raised my hand with the commissioner and said Nebraska should be in that same position with 90,000 fans and the proximity we have to campus.”

As part of the Memorial Stadium upgrades, the south side will get what Dannen called a “massive, massive board.” As for the north side, Dannen said they’re looking at ways to put a new video board over the existing infrastructure, which would be ready by the start of the 2025 season “if we can get the components in time.”

“The north board has out-lived its useful life,” Dannen said, “and I had hoped to put a new board in to the south and take our chances with the north board, but we won’t be able to do the south board until the stadium construction is underway, so we have to get something done in the north.”

Last season Nebraska averaged $375,000 each game in concessions. Through four games this year, it’s pushing $900,000.

“The transactions are moving faster,” Dannen said.