Friday night lights getting crowded

Appalachian State has announced that they will play a game with Wofford of Halloween night, televised on ESPN2.

Normally, this would not be a big deal, but this year, Halloween falls on a Friday night - the night that is reserved for high school football across the country.

The game, which will be played at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone, is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., the same time that numerous high school football games across the state will be going on, and it is sure to draw attendance and attention away from high school football - especially in the western part of the state.

ESPN2 has been broadcasting these obscure Friday night games since 2004. Last year, No. 5 West Virginia played No. 18 South Florida on a Friday night, and it ended up being ESPN2's second-highest rating since they began showing college football games.

Charlie Adams, the executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, put out a written statement on Wednesday morning explaining the Association's stance on the topic. "There has been no change in the position of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and its concern about televising college football games on Friday night," Adams said, "We do not support any college or university televising a football game in the traditional Friday night high school football slot."

Adams did acknowledge that Appalachian State has given the NCHSAA and its member schools enough time to change games if need be.

The NCHSAA shares the same concern I do - the fact that this may be becoming a trend.

Maybe the folks at ESPN don't realize it, but you can't have college football without high school football. And if college football games are consistently held on Friday night, it is going to take away from the high school football market.

Sure, one game on a Friday night isn't going to make or break high school football, but what if it becomes a double-header, a triple-header, or something like Monday Night Football for the NFL? More people across the country are going to want to watch college football than high school football - especially if it is a game of substance.

"We want to emphasize that we hope that this is not the beginning of a consistent pattern of games being played and televised in North Carolina on the primary night that high school teams play, because we believe that could really damage our programs," Adams added.