Friday night slights

 They played the Old Oaken Bucket game in West Lafayette last night, and it was the coldest Bucket game on record -- 24 degrees at game time -- and Indiana did what Indiana does, which was trash-compact poor Purdue 56-3. Ran on the Boilers like Secretariat, stacking 355 rushing yards and averaging a ridiculous 9.6 yards per carry. Finished with 548 total yards to the Purdues' 282.

And that's all I have to say about that, to quote Forrest Gump.

The rest goes back to those first 12 words: They played the Old Oaken Bucket game in West Lafayette last night ...

Last night.

On the first day of the high school football state finals in Indianapolis.

On a night -- Friday night -- that's supposed to belong to high school football, even when it's not state finals weekend.

That's wrong. It's just flat-out, certifiably, indubitably wrong.

And, yes, before you start in, I know how this makes me sound: Like Shout At The Kids In The Clouds To Get Off His Lawn guy. To which I will plead guilty. Sportsball World isn't like it used to be, and while I acknowledge that as a codger who still has most of his marbles, it doesn't mean I can't cuss and spit and say "consarn it!" a lot about what it's become.

Playing the Bucket game on what's supposed to be one of high school football's big days, for instance.

Mind you, this is not to single out Purdue and Indiana. Every money-grubbing institution of higher earning plays on Friday nights now -- even in Texas, where high school football is king and the colleges horning in on their deal is like taking the Lord's name in vain. It's pure-dee straight-up blasphemy.

Of course, being money-grubbing institutions of higher earning, the universities don't care about such things. They care about TV deals that could choke Mister Ed. Which means the days when college football told the networks "Here's when we're playing, televise it if you want" are long gone. 

The network tail started wagging the college football dog decades ago, and now the colleges play every day of the week except Sunday and Monday. If CBS or ESPN or Fox decided it could get a better return on their investment by having Purdue and Indiana play at midnight on a Wednesday during finals week, then Purdue and Indiana would play at midnight on a Wednesday during finals week. 

Money talks; propriety ... oh, hell, what's propriety got to do with it?

And so, the Boilers and Hoosiers played last night. And down in Indianapolis, at the same time, New Palestine concluded an unbeaten season by disposing of Merrillville in the 5A state title game. And in Ross-Ade Stadium and the university boardrooms and the lushly-appointed offices of the networks, they presumably said, "Aw, gee, isn't that sweet."

OK. So that's a lie.

What they really said, most likely, was nothing.