'Absolutely not': Michigan AD says Wolverines will not be playing on Friday nights

Chris Breiler | Sep 5, 2024

Michigan Stadium under the lights / Christopher Breiler

Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel recently sat down with Jon Jansen for another episode of 'Conqu'ring Heroes,' discussing a wide range of topics about all-things Michigan football.

With the landscape of college football changing at a rapid pace, the question of whether or not Michigan would ever entertain the idea of playing a Friday night game was brought up. Based on Manuel's response, it's a pretty safe bet that Michigan fans won't see that happening anytime soon.

"Absolutely not to Friday night. We're not having a Friday night game. I'll just leave it at that," Manuel said.

Michigan Stadium under the lights / Christopher Breiler

Although Friday night games are off the table, Manuel says that Saturday night games will still be part of the Michigan schedule moving forward. While he acknowledged the appeal of playing games in primetime, Manuel made it clear that he doesn't want anymore than two night games during a season.

"We do not want more than two Saturday night games. And that's really because of our fan base. And I've said it before: Our fan base travels far and wide. We want our fans to have opportunity to come down, travel, be safe... those kind of benefits to not playing multiple night games. I understand television would like us to do it.

"I understand primetime gets a lot of coverage, but Big Noon also gets a lot of coverage. And so we're happy with that. And when we're on at 3.30 on CBS, they get a lot of coverage. In other words, our fan base, it's important to me, important to Sherrone, and our staff and our student athletes that our fan base has an opportunity to see us in person. And that's how I focus on it. And for that reason, I don't want more than two."

Michigan opened the season in primetime against Fresno State, and it's likely that the next primetime game for the Wolverines will also be occurring inside of Michigan Stadium - although nothing official has been announced just yet. Last year the Wolverines reserved their two primetime games for Bowling Green in Week 3 and Purdue in Week 9.

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