Penn State and Ohio State fans unite in their hate of FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff

The biggest game of Penn State’s season was not the Week 11 White Out win over Washington. It was a Week 10 loss to Ohio State 20-13, that should have been the White Out Game if not for FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff claiming the game for an early kickoff in Happy Valley. 

The Buckeyes may have benefited from that decision, not facing a nighttime White Out crowd at Beaver Stadium, though Penn State fans broke the attendance record that day. However, Ohio State fans might be even more fed up with FOX than Penn State fans were. 

A night game is just an objectively better experience for the fans in attendance. Nobody has time to tailgate if the game starts at Noon. That’s fine when Bowling Green or Kent State are in town, but the most important games of the season belong in primetime. That’s true of Penn State/Ohio State, and in 2024, it’s true of Ohio State Indiana in Week 13. Yet both were claimed by FOX for noon kickoff.

As inarguably the biggest brand in the Big Ten, FOX is happy to have the Buckeyes on at Noon every week, not just for its traditional noon kickoff for the Ohio State/Michigan game, and at this point they practically are. All of Ohio State’s final six games of the regular season are noon kickoffs and it feels practically impossible for the team to get an important game in primetime. 

FOX has had success with its Big Noon Kickoff games and the ratings have done very well. They’ve even hinted at the Ohio State/Penn State game being featured again next season, but it’s ruining the environment at stadiums and disrupting the enjoyment of the sport. 

Penn State fans were livid that the White Out had to be moved to Week 11, and even more mad when NBC shunned it and put it on Peacock, but that’s another story. So, it’s nice to see that Ohio State fans share in that anger because their situation in Columbus is even worse. If FOX needs ratings, they’ll hit the Buckeyes button, and there isn’t much that Ohio State can do about it.