University of North Carolina Athletics
The Science Of Football Scheduling
September 7, 2008 | Football
Sept. 7, 2008
This is the time of year when unique--and sometimes strange--matchups dot the college football landscape. It used to be that those games were usually arranged while athletic directors were on the golf course or in a back hallway somewhere at an AD's meeting. Now, those games are often arranged by the television networks.
One of those networks, ESPN, has placed the Carolina-Rutgers game in the prime Thursday night spot this week. As discussed in the article, networks are finding prime nonconference games harder to arrange. With intense pressure for teams to earn a BCS berth, few schools want to set up extra non-league hurdles in the regular season.
Thursday night games have become the rough NCAA equivalent of the NFL's Monday Night Football. This week marks Carolina's first game on Thursday since a trip to Virginia in 2006 that was a disaster from even before the kickoff until the final play. In fact, the last Tar Heel victory on Thursday came in 1999 with the David Bomar-preserved 10-6 win over NC State in Charlotte. Rutgers, meanwhile, played three regular Thursday games in 2007 (going 2-1) and one in 2006 (beating Louisville).
