Lack Of Stadiums Force Oklahoma Schools Under Thursday Night Lights

Even when there is school on Friday and sometimes teams have to travel far away, some of Oklahoma's largest schools are playing football under the Thursday night lights.

The four largest schools in our area are playing some games on Thursdays in Oklahoma City.

It's something new the schools are facing and it's because there are too many games and not enough stadiums.

Even the largest schools in the Oklahoma City area share stadiums so they can't all play on Friday. The situation was magnified this year when the 6A division was cut in half.

“We really enjoyed the way it was in the past with the larger 6A and it gave us a lot of great rivalries with Bixby and Sapulpa and Sand Springs and teams we're not able to play now, but the game plan has changed,” said Broken Arrow Assistant Superintendent, Chuck Perry.

There are 16 teams in 6A, division 1; four of them are near Tulsa - Jenks, Union, Owasso and Broken Arrow - the 12 others are in the Oklahoma City area.

That means teams in this area travel more, sometimes even on Thursday, when there's school the next day.

"It takes some self-discipline for the kids, football team, spirit squad and band to be back in school Friday morning, but our expectation is that they do, do that,” Perry said.

Tulsa's schools are in a smaller division, but the scheduling conflicts are similar because the nine high schools share five stadiums.

TPS Athletic Director, Gil Cloud said, "The scheduling thing is really a facility issue more than anything."

Cloud said the situation is reversed during fall break when everyone wants to play Thursday but not everyone can.

"We have at least two or three playing on Friday during stadium conflicts and we just can't get them in there because their playing partner is already playing on Thursday,” he said.

Union has one of the Thursday night away games next week against Southmoore.