From the moment the Big Ten Conference said it’d play football games on select Friday nights starting this fall, collegiate and prep coaches bemoaned the decision.

Their near-universal message – Fridays belong to the high schools.

This week, the effects hit Nebraska, as the beloved Cornhuskers travel to Illinois for an 8 p.m. Eastern Time tilt that conflicts with the state’s other great passion – high school football.

Many schools with no choice will play at the same time. Some will go on Thursday instead, a few on Saturday. Others – like Class A Pius X and Lincoln Southeast, who face off in a big district battle – have switched to an earlier start time.

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To minimize the conflict, the rivals who are situated just a few miles apart will kick off at 5 p.m. Central Time, two hours earlier than usual – an inconvenient but necessary modification. 

With no split allegiances at the FBS level, the Huskers run the state.

“To try and compete against Nebraska at the same time, you take the chance on attendance being low, not being able to get all your workers because they might plan on watching the game,” said Tim Aylward, current Pius X athletic director and former four-time state champion football coach at the school. “You just don’t want to go up against them when they’re playing here or on TV.”

Whether it’s large schools in Lincoln and Omaha, or the hundreds of small schools sprinkled throughout the state, Pius X coach Jim Hansen said it isn’t right to make fans with Nebraska red pumping through their veins choose between one or the other.

“You have all these Nebraska supporters, boosters, season-ticket holders, and they have to make a decision, whether to watch the town game or the Husker game,” he said. “Not everyone can change the time like we did, and they’re stuck.

“For us, it’s a home football game. That’s a $10,000 to $15,000 evening, to support all of our sports. The Big Ten didn’t think about that.”

To make the switch, Aylward had to make sure the officials, chain gang and those who are manning the concessions, gate, press box and security could leave their regular jobs in time. Pius couldn’t change to Thursday because of parent-teacher conferences, and while Nebraska offered a 9:30 a.m. Saturday start on its field, where two other games will be played, Pius said, “No, thank you.”

“Who the hell wants to play then, especially if you’re fighting to get into the playoffs like both our teams are?” Hansen said.

For Hansen, college football on Fridays goes against everything Nebraska’s Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne did in their combined 45 years as head football coach and 32 years as athletic director at the university.

“They cultivated relationships with the high school coaches, started clinics and always had an open door for them to come watch practices and film,” Hansen said. “In the last year and-a-half, when the Big Ten came out saying they’d play on Friday night, it was a big shock to all of the coaches. There’s a lot of people who are really upset.

“You don’t have to get people interested in the Big Ten. Do you think Alabama or LSU would play on a Friday night? Never. It has to be high school on Friday. The Power 5 schools should stay off it. The tradition is special.”