Penn State fans were outraged when FOX claimed the Nittany Lion’s Week 10, top-five matchup with Ohio State for its Big Noon Kickoff slot. Well, with FOX owning much of the Big Ten broadcasting rights, Penn State fans should get used to watching the team’s biggest games of the year in the middle of the day.
Last 25 Years of Ohio State-Penn State Games:
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) November 6, 2024
FOX Big Noon Games - 9.4 million viewers
All Other OSU-PSU Games - 7.3 million
Look forward to running it back next year. https://t.co/TvxPAMl84S
Michael Mulvihill, who does analytics for FOX recently posted about FOX’s excellent midday rating for the big-time matchup, celebrating despite it still falling well short of ABC’s primetime numbers for similar games. However, more importantly, he ended the tweet with “looking forward to running it back next year” indicating that FOX will almost certainly have the meeting between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions in Columbus next year on Big Noon Kickoff.
Despite being a major program with a significant draw, Penn State has routinely been negatively impacted by decision-makers from the major television networks. Not only was the team’s biggest game of the year at Noon, robbing fans of an all-day tailgate scene, a White Out, and the players of one of the best nighttime crowd atmospheres in the sport but the White Out game against Washington in Week 11 will be hidden on Peacock, behind NBC’s paywall.
The Nittany Lions were bumped out of primetime in Week 11 by No. 10 Notre Dame hosting 1-8 Florida State, a team whose only victory of the season came against Cal back in September.
The Big Ten’s big payday from FOX and NBC has set up the programs within the conference for success going forward into a revenue-sharing era in college football, however, fans are the ones continually paying the price, either financially through Peacock subscriptions or just by losing out on night games for the most crucial weeks of the season.