The Buckeyes fans are one of a kind. Known to be a passionate group of football lovers, OSU fans are making sure they enjoy the sport to the maximum. FOX Sports stepping to broadcast its season opener caused a huge uproar in the community, which argued that the network was threatening gameday traditions. However controversial this broadcasting move may be, Ryan Day and Co. are also in for a surprise. But that can only happen if this much-debated broadcast sees the light of day, at the cost of fans’ happiness.
FOX disappointed the college football community when it announced that the season opener game of OSU vs. Texas was going to be broadcast at noon. Big Noon Kickoff was scheduled to show the game, with a key agenda in play. The Network was going to rack up viewers with the noon game, and hopefully build upon that number as the day progressed to the primetime game. But, die-hard football fans will find it a pain to clear out their day for the afternoon of August 30. The way of the game is to sit back, relax, and tune into the channel at night. After decades of building this tradition, Big Noon Kickoff stands to threaten the very spirit of the game.
Ryan Day, however, is presented with a unique opportunity here. It will be bitter for fans to make do with such an odd broadcast time. On top of that, it’s the first game where OSU begins their campaign as defending champions, and Arch Manning makes his debut. All of that seems bland when the match is scheduled at the peak of the day. But, OSU fans are a goldmine-like bank for viewership. Even if they are up in arms about Big Noon Kickoff broadcasting the Texas game, they make up a stat that turns the tables on them. Throughout the history of the program, viewership of Ohio games stands at a colossal total of 200.52 million.
Top 20 Teams’ Total Viewership on the Entire History of Fox Big Noon Kickoff pic.twitter.com/x1o0NmDxdo
— The Big Ten Huddle (@TheBigTenHuddle) May 17, 2025
Ohio State leaves Michigan far behind, which ranks second with a total viewership of 165.8 million. Big Noon Kickoff tends to capitalize on important games of the season. OSU fans have the power to bring a lot of money to whichever network broadcasts their games. The last OSU-Texas matchup was broadcast by ESPN, which saw 19.2 million fans tuning in on multiple platforms. When FOX announced that this year’s opener was a noon game, angry fans set up a petition to ban the show altogether. People who live on the West Coast have to catch the game as early as 9 am. Saturdays and early mornings are quite the odd pair, too!
The Ohio State fans are so dedicated to preserving their football traditions that even the government has intervened to save Ohio State football.
Ryan Day’s opportunity challenged by government action
Ohio State Representative Tex Fischer is here to save the day for OSU fans. He authored a bill that limits Ohio State from playing their big games before 3:30 pm ET. The Buckeyes’ games are a key target for Big Noon Kickoff. Since 2019, the program has broadcast 35 games. Six of them came in 2024 itself. If the bill becomes a law, it poses a whopping $10 million fine against the host team’s conference. Or the network, whichever of the two planned the timing first.
In addition to making flag plants at Ohio Stadium a felony… Ohio’s state government has drafted a new bill to fine FOX $10 million if the Buckeyes play certain schools at noon
What a state. What a sport. pic.twitter.com/iQyuaZpw93
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) May 15, 2025
The law is only against those games where the opponent team is a state university, and if both teams fall in the top 10 of the AP poll. Excluded from this is the Ohio State vs. Michigan game, which is a traditional noon game. This means FOX will have to tread carefully around OSU games, which are a key source of revenue for the program. Also in 2024, 3 OSU noon games became a part of the 10-most-watched games of the season. The Michigan game, racking up 12.30 million viewers, was the second-most-watched game.
The stakes are high for this year’s opening game. Ryan Day and Steve Sarkisian will deploy their new weapons at the line of scrimmage, making it a high-octane game. The winner in this fiasco is FOX, because of how much it stands to rake in with this game. Even if it is at noon, the program will see a formidable amount of footfall. However, now that the state is stepping in to solve this debacle, can noon games lessen in number in the future?
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