Future Egg Bowl Scheduling...fyi

[MSUDawg99]

This is copy/pasted from my Wednesday Bulldog Update email from Scott Stricklin....

FUTURE EGG BOWL SCHEDULING

Over the past few months, both MSU and Ole Miss have been in conversations with ESPN and the SEC office about possibly moving the Egg Bowl to Thanksgiving night, beginning this season.

While open to the idea (the game has been on Thanksgiving seven of the last 17 seasons), both Ross Bjork and myself felt that in order to move the game off of Saturday, our preference was a long-term commitment for the Egg Bowl to consistently be on the same day, at the same time, and on the same network each year (as it was from 1998-2003).

While our partners at ESPN have made it clear how much they value our rivalry, they were not in a position to annually provide us with the day, time slot and network we requested. Thus, this year?s game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 28. The time and network assignment will be made by the SEC office 12 days prior to kickoff, just like most other games.

The success of both schools has given new prominence to the Egg Bowl in recent years. There is a chance these talks could continue related to future years, but at this time plan on seeing the Bulldogs and Rebels tee it up on Saturdays!

[mstatefan91]

I prefer Saturday. I'll go either way (if it's in Starkville) but Saturday is easier to do than Thanksgiving

[MSUDawg99]

I prefer Saturday. I'll go either way (if it's in Starkville) but Saturday is easier to do than Thanksgiving

Couldn't agree more. It's easier on the local merchants as well. They'd prefer a Saturday than having to work on Thanksgiving & missing their families.

[BulldogBear]

This is copy/pasted from my Wednesday Bulldog Update email from Scott Stricklin....

FUTURE EGG BOWL SCHEDULING

Over the past few months, both MSU and Ole Miss have been in conversations with ESPN and the SEC office about possibly moving the Egg Bowl to Thanksgiving night, beginning this season.

While open to the idea (the game has been on Thanksgiving seven of the last 17 seasons), both Ross Bjork and myself felt that in order to move the game off of Saturday, our preference was a long-term commitment for the Egg Bowl to consistently be on the same day, at the same time, and on the same network each year (as it was from 1998-2003).

While our partners at ESPN have made it clear how much they value our rivalry, they were not in a position to annually provide us with the day, time slot and network we requested. Thus, this year?s game will be played on Saturday, Nov. 28. The time and network assignment will be made by the SEC office 12 days prior to kickoff, just like most other games.

The success of both schools has given new prominence to the Egg Bowl in recent years. There is a chance these talks could continue related to future years, but at this time plan on seeing the Bulldogs and Rebels tee it up on Saturdays!

Read between the lines here, he and Bjork were trying to get the game played on FRIDAY, though I don't know what time they might have been interested in.

[MSUDawg99]

Read between the lines here, he and Bjork were trying to get the game played on FRIDAY, though I don't know what time they might have been interested in.

Huh? Then why did he say they were in discussions about moving it to Thanksgiving night? Friday wasn't mentioned so no that's not what he meant & I remember this discussion on Twitter when it came out. Friday was never brought up.

[Todd4State]

Thank you ESPN.

This is good for most of our fans for both fan bases.

[BulldogBear]

Huh? Then why did he say they were in discussions about moving it to Thanksgiving night? Friday wasn't mentioned so no that's not what he meant & I remember this discussion on Twitter when it came out. Friday was never brought up.
He said he was "open" to it, but reading between the lines, I think they asked for Friday and ESPN would not commit.

"...moving the Egg Bowl to Thursday, beginning this season..." Well, if they did that the when the heck else would Thanksgiving fall but on a Thursday? Moving "off" Saturday means just that, not on Saturday. If they were pushing for a different day and were open to Thursday/Thanksgiving but no deal was struck, it would seem to me that there's a good chance that they were actually looking at or counter-proposing Friday and ESPN was not ready to go for that at this time.

[Todd4State]

He said he was "open" to it, but reading between the lines, I think they asked for Friday and ESPN would not commit.

"...moving the Egg Bowl to Thursday, beginning this season..." Well, if they did that the when the heck else would Thanksgiving fall but on a Thursday? Moving "off" Saturday means just that, not on Saturday. If they were pushing for a different day and were open to Thursday/Thanksgiving but no deal was struck, it would seem to me that there's a good chance that they were actually looking at or counter-proposing Friday and ESPN was not ready to go for that at this time.

I don't know about Friday, and I'm not saying that you are wrong- but Scott has definitely had a hard on for playing the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving Day.

At any rate, Friday is not a good compromise because of the High School playoff games that night unless the MHSAA were to agree to move them.

[Homedawg]

Scott would like it on Thursday, as long as it's a long term commitment. What he doesn't want is one year thurs and one year sat.

[BulldogBear]

Scott would like it on Thursday, as long as it's a long term commitment. What he doesn't want is one year thurs and one year sat.
That's definitely something we want to avoid. I don't mind Thu, Fri, or Sat, but definitely with several seasons of consistency.

[BulldogBear]

I don't know about Friday, and I'm not saying that you are wrong- but Scott has definitely had a hard on for playing the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving Day.

At any rate, Friday is not a good compromise because of the High School playoff games that night unless the MHSAA were to agree to move them.

Aren't there games on Saturday also though?

[Todd4State]

Aren't there games on Saturday also though?

Not normally. And I've gone to many Madison Central games the Friday before the Egg Bowl, so I have a fairly vivid memory of it.

[War Machine Dawg]

****. I much prefer the game on Thanksgiving Day. We get shit on by the Iron Bowl when it's played on Saturday.

[Dawg61]

Move the game to Monday late afternoon and propose an announcer switch with the MNF crew. College guys announce the NFL game and Chucky & Tirico announces us. They'll never say yes but they should. I would think the Egg Bowl before the NFL game would bring in a higher rating than at any other time besides maybe Saturday night.