Minnesota Football escapes Big Ten Friday Night nonsense

The Big Ten has officially announced their Friday night football schedule for 2017. Here’s what it looks like:

Fri., Sept. 1 Washington at Rutgers

Fri., Sept. 1 Utah State at Wisconsin

Fri., Sept. 8 Ohio at Purdue

Fri., Sept. 29 Nebraska at Illinois

Fri., Oct. 13 Northwestern at Maryland

Fri., Oct. 27 Michigan State at Northwestern

My reaction?

Minnesota was snubbed by the Big Ten and will not get to participate in the first year of Big Ten Friday Night Football. This is a slap in the face to the program and should not be tolerated by the Gophers.

Yea, anyone who read my hot take when this was first announced knows the paragraph above couldn’t be farther from how I actually feel. My real response is that this is good news. We have at least one year off before getting roped into this cash grab. That’s one more year for the kinks to get ironed out, for Minnesota to plan how they would handle hosting one of these games, and for the Big Ten to prove through public statements and policies that this isn’t going to be a “Big 3 Little 11” scenario where some schools get to pout and opt out.