It's time to do away with Black Friday games.  They're even more poorly attended than the rest of the regular season, needlessly extend the regular season and give the teams in the MAC Championship Game little time for selling tickets, getting fan transportation together and prepping the teams for the championship.  The five games played yesterday -- only two of which were televised -- drew a reported 36,945.  The previous home game for the five teams drew a reported 84,827 combined.  That's about 48,000 fewer in attendance in those stadiums yesterday than just a few weeks ago.  Even at only $10 a ticket, that's $480,000 less revenue for the five programs, not to mention concessions, parking, souvenirs, etc.  Even the Tuesday night Fiami game against Temps drew about 4,000 fewer than was reported for Fiami's previous home game, which was against the Cats.

Instead of the Black Friday game, the MAC should do away with the open week during the season.  There are at least 12 Saturdays from Labor Day weekend to the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Play em all.  That way, Senior Days would actually be played while students were still on campus.  This would also mean that the Tuesday and Wednesday games would likely be done, but those are never well-attended anyway and we always get THE WORST announcing crews ESPN can scrape together.  And the MAC could still cut a deal for ESPN time on Thursdays and Fridays, and maybe even Saturday mornings on the U -- all of which would likely be better attended than yesterday's games.  Let's cut down on the embarrassingly empty stadiums that are beamed to national TV audiences, like those that are seen every Black Friday.