For at least one season, Friday Night Lights can be seen on a smartphone near you. The University Interscholastic League, the governing body of public schools in Texas, announced Thursday it will lift a ban temporarily on live telecasts and streaming of football games due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In an attempt to comply with social distancing guidelines and fan restrictions, the organization wants to make games easily to see for those who can't get to games.
The UIL defines telecasts as "any live or tape-delayed video footage of a contest in its entirety that can be transmitted through television, Internet Web stream, Webcast, video podcast, smartphone apps, tablet computer apps, closed-circuit channels, weather cameras or other medium."
The UIL announced July 21 that fall activities for the state's two
largest classifications, 6A and 5A, will be
pushed back five weeks. The start of practice went from
Aug. 3 to Sept. 7, and games are slated to begin Sept. 24-26. The football playoffs
in those classifications originally slated for Nov. 12, now begin
on Dec. 3, and title games, originally
scheduled Dec. 16-19 at AT&T Stadium, now will take place sometime
in Jan.
Class 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A will continue as scheduled having started practices Aug. 3 and games set to kick off Aug. 27-29.
The lifting of the ban is for the 2020 football season only and could go back into place should the pandemic be controlled, allowing parents and fans to attend games without restrictions.
Action like this 2019 game between Lone Star and Lancaster may be captured and shown live via a smartphone in 2020.
Photo by Mike Augustin
