Thursday night, amid a contract dispute, Disney pulled ABC, ESPN, and more channels from YouTube TV, leaving college football fans scrambling to find a solution to watch their favorite teams in Week 10.
YouTube TV had similar disputes with FOX in August and Comcast in December, but reached agreements in both cases. This is the first contract dispute that led to channels being taken off the service. Now, for maybe the first time, Penn State fans can be thankful to have their team on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff for its Week 10 matchup with Ohio State.
Big Noon hasn’t been a fan favorite since FOX began slating many of the Big Ten’s best games for an early kickoff. No program has been affected more than Ohio State, with the Buckeyes routinely playing in the early slot and missing out on primetime games at home. Still, Penn State has been featured multiple times over the past two seasons, including last year’s matchup with Ohio State.
Is it a good thing that Penn State vs. Ohio State will be televised at all?
While it is a sigh of relief knowing that Penn State’s game is not being used as a bargaining chip in YouTube TV’s negotiations with Disney, missing the game may not have been the worst thing for Nittany Lions fans after all.
Under James Franklin, Penn State beat Ohio State just once, needing a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown to down the Buckeyes in 2016. Now, under interim head coach Terry Smith, just weeks after Franklin’s dismissal, the Nittany Lions are 18.5-point underdogs on the road.
The spread opened even larger than that, but surprisingly has been bet in the Nittany Lions’ direction. Penn State enters the matchup without a win over a Power 4 opponent at 3-4, while Ohio State is the undefeated No. 1 team in the country with a 6-0-1 record against the spread this season.
It’s very likely that Penn State suffers another loss, and potentially falls to 3-6 with No. 2 Indiana looming in Week 11. This season might go from bad to worse, if that’s even possible, so the fanbase may choose to avert their eyes.