On Monday, Fox Sports announced it will carry the much anticipated Week 1 clash between the Texas Longhorns and Ohio State Buckeyes. But the network didn’t announce what time the game will kickoff. Is Fox thinking about moving the game to primetime?
In 2019, Fox Sports branded its primary college football coverage as Big Noon Saturday. The name of the pregame show was changed to Big Noon Kickoff. While the network had aired games in the Noon ET time slot before, Fox decided to claim the window as their own and build its coverage around it.
The ratings have been good. Fox will occasionally beat out ESPN College GameDay and it has completely overtaken CBS has the second biggest college football network partner.
So when Fox announced it had secured the rights to the Texas-OSU game, it was assumed the game would be in the Big Noon Saturday time slot to kickoff the 2025 season.
But the early kickoff times aren’t without detractors. When Texas travelled to Michigan last season, it was odd that one of the biggest games of the year started so early, 11 a.m. local time in Texas. Fans of the elite teams in the Big Ten, Fox’s primary conference partner, have long bemoaned the Noon kick for the biggest game of the week.
Fox also has the Big 12 contract and it was cited as a reason Texas and Oklahoma moved to the SEC. OU president Joe Harroz said, “Our fans talk about that. It also matters to student-athletes. … If those premiere slots are already taken up, it impacts things in a material way. It translates into disadvantages in recruiting the top talent, disadvantages for our student-athletes and a detriment to the fan experience.”
Matt Zemek of College Sports Wire speculates if the game was going to anchor the first Big Noon Saturday of the 2025 season, Fox Sports probably would have announced it on Monday. Of course, the network…
Source link : https://longhornswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/longhorns/football/2025/05/13/will-fox-sports-move-texas-at-ohio-state-to-primetime-in-week-1/83606246007/
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Publish date : 2025-05-13 21:15:00
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