Feature Photo by Erin Douglas
Story by Brett Walker
Middle Tennessee football is back in full swing coming off a bye week.
The team heads to Ruston, Louisiana, on Thursday, Oct. 10, to face off against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. Thursday night’s primetime matchup is the first of three that the Blue Raiders will play in a tight 13-day window.
The Blue Raiders’ second game of the 13-day period is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 15, at home against Kennesaw State and the third game is set for Wednesday Oct. 23, on the road at Jacksonville State.
Having previously coached in conferences that didn’t participate in weekday games, the non-stop football action is new to Middle Tennessee head coach Derek Mason. Over the next two weeks, the most important thing for the MTSU coaching staff is to ensure the players are well rested and well prepared, Mason said.
Adjusting to the short week, the first year head coach implemented shorter practice times and lighter workloads as he attempts keep his team fresh.
“I think we’ve been smart with how we’ve settled our practices,” Mason said in his weekly press conference. “Instead of having these overarching long practices, our practices have been fairly short, pretty crisp, trying to take the heavy lifting off [the players]. Really just emphasizing nutrition, recovery and this ability for these guys to make sure that they’re in the tape, because there’s a lot of information in the tape.”
From a coaching perspective, preparing for games in quick succession is certainly difficult, but the adjustment thrust upon the student-athletes is even more so. Game prepping at least two days ahead of schedule has been a whole new experience for offensive tackle Ellis Adams.
Being a graduate student transfer from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level at Tennessee Tech, the midweek matchups are a first for the Hoover, Alabama native. Truthfully, the team doesn’t yet know how to completely compartmentalize and adapt to the drastic schedule changes, Adams said.
“This is very new to me, but you know how to take care of your body throughout the week,” Adams said. “When things change you’ve just got to adjust. That’s the biggest thing we’ve had to do as an offensive line.”
MTSU’s conference, Conference USA, began the weeknight scheduling model at the start of the 2023-2024 season after signing a new deal with CBS Sports and ESPN. The contract extends to all sports and provides the two networks with shared ownership of C-USA broadcast rights, with CBS Sports being the primary television home.
As part of the new deal, the conference elected to adjust its October football schedule to allow roughly eight mid-week games to be annually distributed between CBS Sports and ESPN.
The contract enables the conference to provide increased exposure for teams and consistent broadcast homes for viewing, C-USA associate commissioner Tre Stallings said.
“What we wanted to have the opportunity to do was to streamline our games and we were presented with a really good offer from CBS and from ESPN in regards to having midweek games in the month of October,” Stallings said. “It was going to be a wide-open window for us to kind of put ourselves out there and to gain exposure and gain notoriety.”
During initial contract talks, decreased preparation time was discussed as a potential side effect of the midweek format. When it came time to vote, however, there was an overwhelming sense from coaches, athletic directors and conference leadership that going with the new format was best for C-USA in the long term, Stallings said.
“This was an opportunity for us to really showcase what C-USA football is all about,” Stallings said. “There was not one single vote in the room that said, hey no, we don’t want to do midweek football.”
More exposure to the product naturally brings an increase in revenue. The five-year contract pays out $8 million annually across C-USA. With ten teams in the conference in 2024, each athletic department receives roughly $800,000 per year, C-USA assistant commissioner of strategic communication Josh Yonis said.
While the partnership certainly brings higher viewership and increased profits for conference members, it may come at the expense of player safety.
Marci Beck, a sports performance specialist at Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance (TOA), feels that playing games in such quick succession could lead to an influx of injuries.
Playing a football game is often akin to getting in a car crash once per week; a metaphor Beck believes to be true. With players now being subjected to three “car crashes” in a less than two-week span, fatigue is much more likely, hindering their ability to fend off injuries, she said.
Additionally, the altered conference schedule allows for less rehabilitation in betwixt contests. Between practices and walkthroughs, the Blue Raiders will have very little time to recover between LA Tech and Kennesaw State.
“Everyone’s recovery period is going to vary for a variety of reasons,” Beck said. “I personally, would like to see college football players, especially at the Division I level getting four days [of rest].”
As the month goes on, the midweek games become more evenly spaced out. For example, a team playing on Tuesday may not play again until the following Tuesday. However, the early October schedule makes it nearly impossible for Middle Tennessee to get the four days of rest that Beck suggests.
At the conclusion of the 2024 football campaign, C-USA’s contract with CBS and ESPN will have three seasons remaining. Conference officials must find a balance between trying to make midweek C-USA football a college football mainstay and making sure they keep their student-athletes out of harm’s way.
Brett Walker is the sports editor for MTSU Sidelines
To contact the Sports and Assistant Sports Editor, email [email protected]
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