The 2OT: Does anyone enjoy college football on a Thursday?

The Thought.

When you think Thursday night football, you think NFL, but in the last few years our Texas Tech Red Raiders have played a few Thursday night games. Last night, they faced the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, and despite the win, as a college football fan, I don’t know if I like Thursday night games much.

The Take.

Thursday night games can hurt or help a team. It usually just depends on the situation. The good thing about this particular last night’s game is that it came after a bye week. The Red Raiders were rested and mentally prepared for this game.

In even better news, they will have another long break (9 days) before they face Kansas for the Homecoming game. In past seasons, Coach Kingsbury has complained about the bye week being either too early or too late in the season. This year, the team was lucky enough to get a bye week and the Thursday night game right around mid-season. The problem with this is that bye weeks and Thursday night football games change every season, and the team isn’t always as lucky as they were this season. In those unlucky seasons, a Thursday night game means a shorter week to recover from Saturday’s game. A shorter recovery time means a higher risk of injury.

For those of us with real adult jobs, Thursday night football games are a nightmare. Sometimes we don’t get to leave the office in time to watch the game. If the game runs late, it is going to be a long day in the office on Friday and they better have a coffee pot running all day. If you want to actually attend the game, good luck asking your boss for a four day weekend. Tailgating is probably out of the question unless you can convince your boss to let you go home early. Weeknight games just take the fun out of the fan experience in my opinion.