When ISU officials announced last week they would play their game at Northern Illinois this September on Saturday instead of Friday, high school football coaches around the state breathed a sigh of relief.

“A lot of people were concerned about the precedent,” said West Marshall head coach Ken Winkler.

But ISU head coach Dan McCarney has always followed through on his commitments to high school coaches and players, Winkler said.

When the NCAA in April 2001 removed a rule that prohibited teams from kicking off a game at or after 7 p.m. on Fridays, athletics officials from the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State made a commitment to continue to reserve that night for high school football games only.

“We interpreted that as being that they would not play on Friday nights,” Winkler said.

Eyebrows raised when ISU athletics director Bruce Van De Velde said June 18 that discussions about a Friday game continued among Northern Illinois, Iowa State and ESPN, which would have televised the game on its ESPN2 network.

Would playing a Friday road game violate Iowa State’s earlier commitment?

Bernie Saggau, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, said that was a matter of interpretation.

He said he was pleased Van De Velde sought out a large number of opinions before he and McCarney made a decision.

“[Van De Velde] did it very professionally,” Saggau said. “He did listen.”

Saggau said it was important that high schools have their own day for games when they could not be overshadowed by a school like Iowa State.

“Friday night football is very important to our state,” he said.

Winkler said he thought an ISU game on a Friday, home or away, would drastically affect high school games.

“It would have a tremendous impact on interest and attendance,” he said. “If people don’t come, that affects the gate receipts.”

Bruce Vertanen, head football coach at Ames High School, said news about the possible move caught his attention immediately.

“If we’re going to go head-to-head with the ‘big’ Cyclones, as the Little Cyclones … we’re going to lose a lot of fans,” he said.

Saggau likened the situation to an NFL team wanting to play on college football’s traditional Saturday.

“High schools and colleges went to Congress to make sure [that] didn’t happen,” he said.

The ISU athletic department said the Friday game would have earned the Cyclones more than $400,000 in television revenue.

“I do understand the problem of finance today,” Saggau said.

“I think they made the best possible decision for the state of Iowa and for their program.”

That concern was why the decision was made, Van De Velde said in announcing the move June 19.

“The bottom line was supporting high school football in the state of Iowa,” he said.

Northern Illinois:

While Northern Illinois officials had begun making plans for a Friday game, they had never committed to that date before Iowa State made its decision, Northern Illinois associate athletic director Robert Collins said.

“It is something we were wanting to do as a conference… not at all an NIU initiative,” he said. “We’re always looking for Mid-American Conference schools to have [television appearances].”

Collins said high school teams around DeKalb, Ill., where the Huskies play, do not play exclusively on Friday nights.

“We had already talked with our local high school, who plays in our stadium,” he said.

DeKalb High School had agreed to play their home game on Saturday “for a one-time deal”, Collins said.

Collins said there was no disappointment about Iowa State rejecting ESPN’s television offer.

“We’ll have bigger crowd,” he said.

Northern Illinois announced Tuesday that the Sept. 27 game in Huskie Stadium will begin at 3:05 p.m.