by heimer » Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:16 pm
The latest start you will see for the final game is 8:00 p.m. And right now, that start will only happen on a Saturday night, since the late night show has to get on by 10:35 p.m., and the news is on at 10 p.m.
So, if we're gonna do this on a Friday, you will see no other schedule that fits what television wants to do. Missing the 6 p.m. news is not an option. Missing the 10 p.m. news is not an option. Television will not allow it.
With those scheduling criteria in mind, you can see the wall the NDHSAA has been shoved against by TV:
No games between 6 and 6:30, and only one game after 6:30, so the 10 p.m. news can get done. With four games, you will have to have three done before 6 p.m. There is absolutely no way to get three games in before 6 p.m. unless you start the first one at 9 a.m.
If all parts were equal, I'd be willing to look at an 11, 2, 5 and 8 option. But this will never happen, as the TV networks will not allow it.
In a way, it's some justice. TV is the reason why we don't have three classes of basketball, screwing some schools. Now the small ones get screwed by TV in football. Well, at least the metro teams will never get screwed.
Seriously, and I mean seriously, how long until either the metro teams are kicked out of the NDHSAA, or until the metro schools decide they no longer need the NDHSAA. Either way, the landscape will improve tremendously. To the schools in Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot: Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out. I hear Eddie Secureboards in Fargo would be a great choice for your executive secretary, since he already has Sherm Sylling by the you-know-whats. The last guy that ran a league like Secureboards runs the EDC was Custer. How did that work out?
God is bigger than football.