FORT WORTH -- By now it should not surprise us that the NFL is playing a regular-season football game on a Friday night in Brazil.
By now it should not surprise us that Oklahoma will open its first season in the SEC hosting Temple University on a Friday night in Norman.
By now it should not surprise us that the NFL will play games on a Wednesday in December, because it falls on Christmas.
Sorry, Santa. You got got by football. And television.
The loser in this evolution is the game that makes the college, and NFL, possible: high schools. This development was both inevitable, and sad.
Those Friday Night Lights aren't gone, but they are forever dimmed.
This week, the University of Oklahoma announced that its season-opener against Temple University was moved from Saturday, Aug. 31 to Friday, Aug. 30.
Also this week, it was widely reported that the NFL's season opener between the Green Bay Packers against the Philadelphia Eagles will not only be played in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but it's on Friday, Sept. 6. The game will only be available only through NBC's subscription service, Peacock.
These developments come weeks after the NFL confirmed that while it will not play games on Christmas Eve this year, there will be two games on Christmas Day. If you don't know those days, Christmas Eve this year falls on a Tuesday, meaning there will be a pair of Wednesday NFL games.
This is how the wealthy get paralyzingly wealthy.
For years and years and years, coaches and administrators alike fought hard to leave Friday nights to high school. That was always supposed to be their night. All parties involved on the higher level started their careers in football in high schools, and the priority was to keep Friday nights for the high school kids.
As America's population grew, and the participation and interest in football remained solid, high schools in major metro areas all over the United States had no choice but to schedule games on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. This wasn't about TV contracts; this is about officials, bus drivers and the people behind the scenes who make these games possible.
Then TV wanted in on Friday nights, too. It was untapped, and potentially, prime TV real estate. Not a flood of games. But a few.
Major, and mid-major, college conferences imprisoned to the money provided by networks had no choice but to agree to play games on Thursdays and Fridays. The Big 12 and Pac-12 have provided one game to a Thursday or Friday night package for the last several years.
According to a report in The Athletic, Fox Sports plans to air a major college football game on Friday nights this fall. Two of TCU's football games in 2024 are scheduled for Friday night, Aug. 30 at Stanford, and Oct. 4 versus Houston.
The Mid American Conference (MAC) bolstered its identity by playing some of its league football games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. "Wednesday Night Mac-tion" provided the type of exposure this Group of Five league desperately wants.
All of these developments came with a price.
A price that, by now, we know means zero to Jerry Jones, Stan Kroenke and the rest of the owners of NFL franchises. The same for the executives who come up with the desired programming slots for the TV schedules that dictate when games will be played for college and the NFL.
The price is a high school game that continually is pushed to the edges of the weekends. Moms, dads, families and friends of the players and coaches will all still attend. The same for the band members and their families, too. The cheerleaders will still be there on the sidelines.
The game isn't going away. It just won't have the same priority it once did.
By now it should not surprise us that if the NFL wants something, it will get it.
So it will not surprise us when the NFL schedules a game on the moon, on Easter Sunday.