FOX is bringing its Big Noon Kickoff pregame show to Penn State on Saturday, and Nittany Lions fans couldn’t be happier. They said it right in the mentions of the FOX ad on social media.

“Thank you for forcing another showdown in prime time at 12 pm”

“By the way, this should be a night game”

AND…

Nothing personal, Urban Meyer, Brady Quinn and the Start of FOX’s big noon broadcast team that will be on stage outside the Bryce Jordan Center before Saturday’s Penn State-Ohio State game. It’s just that Penn State fans, like many others, have issues with FOX’s Big Noon Saturday broadcast, which has placed some of the conference’s marquee games in Saturday’s noon slot. So for the second in a row Penn State-Ohio State game At Beaver Stadium, fans will fight rushing morning traffic, eat cold sandwiches for breakfast and forego an afternoon of partying in Happy Valley for an early start.

So no, they’re not happy, particularly when they think Ohio State should visit them for the annual visit “Penn State shut down.” Few spoke better on behalf of the fan base than State College’s Chris Buchignani, the show’s co-host. Mandatory PSU Pregame Show and podcastto radio show on 98.7 The Fox and a strong opinion of Big Noon games.

“The reason why at the age of 45 I am happy to still sit on an uncomfortable metal bench, sometimes even in bad weather, is because the energy of bringing together more than 100,000 humans, all supporting a team they love viscerally, it’s just great energy.” can be achieved in very few settings,” Buchignani said in an interview. “And so depriving both the in-person audience, and really the national college football audience, of experiencing that when the stakes are highest – when you have two great programs, highly ranked teams like Penn State and Ohio State together – That’s the crime in my mind.”

Before FOX presented Big Noon Saturday in 2019, Penn State fans could largely count on hosting Michigan or Ohio State at night and for the annual “White Out.” But the last of those games occurred in 2020, when Penn State hosted Ohio State for a primetime “White Out” before some players’ families, cardboard cutouts representing other fans and cowbell audio recording during COVID season. Since then, Penn State and Ohio State have played in FOX’s Big Noon window, and Penn State has moved its “White Out” elsewhere.

In 2022, the opponent was Minnesota instead of Ohio State. This year it’s Washington, which visit Beaver Stadium for the “White Out” on November 9. This summer, Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft said he lobbied the Big Ten and its media rights partners for a “blackout” between Penn State and Ohio in prime time, but that discussion was met with resistance. .

“We didn’t land any games (for the White Out),” Kraft said at the Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis. “I think everyone knows what we would pick if we picked a White Out game. This year it got a little more difficult because of the three networks and the draft process.”

FOX opened Big Noon’s broadcast window five years ago in hopes of taking over the Saturday college football schedule. CBS owned the 3:30 window with the SEC and ABC dominated prime time. So when Wisconsin’s 35-14 win over Michigan drew 5.5 million viewers in 2019, FOX thought it was onto something.

“That led me and others to think we should just lean into this,” said Michael Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics for FOX Sports. he told analyst Joel Klatt this summer.

Since then, according to FOX, Big Noon Saturday has been The most watched game in college football. for three consecutive years. In 2023, FOX averaged more than 6.7 million viewers in the midday window, an 8 percent increase from the previous season. ABC has been most competitive so far this year in the midday window, beating FOX in five of nine weeks, according to numbers compiled by Sports Media Watch.

Still, more viewers means higher advertising rates and more value for the customer. Seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal. that FOX, NBC and CBS signed with the Big Ten in 2022. Which in turn means greater media rights controls that the Big Ten cuts to Penn State and others.

Buchignani said he understands that and “I hate it too.”

“It should be totally reasonable for someone to be a die-hard fan of college football and not have to know anything about the mechanics of sports media rights deals,” said Buchignani, vice president of the Mount Nittany Conservation. “Yet, every time I see someone, including the four of us at Mandatory, shoot Big Noon from the Penn State side, I laugh. They’re all right, 100 percent. I also cringe a little because I know we’re biting the hand that feeds us. I am very happy that, as a member of the Big Ten, Pat Kraft can collect an $80 million check every year.

This year, money flowed into the midday conversation between Penn State and Ohio State from a different perspective. On that summer edition of the Joel Klatt Show, Mulvihill explained why this Nov. 2 date on the college football calendar was even more appealing: The presidential election is three days away.

“There will be a lot of political money,” Mulvihill told Klatt. “The idea of ​​being in control of that date, having the option to take Ohio State-Penn State or Michigan-Oregon just a few days before the election and all the campaign money that will come with it, really hit me hard.”

So, Penn State fans, enjoy the first day of play with a conversation about media rights and election money. Buchignani said he will too. Mostly.

“You know that psychopaths like me are addicts, right? They will force us to follow them wherever they lead,” Buchignani said. “So if they put Penn State-Ohio State on the moon at 3 a.m., I’ll call Elon Musk to see if I can be there in person. Otherwise, I’ll be up at 3 a.m. But where’s his value? ?, it’s just that ESPN, NBC and CBS don’t compete for that time slot at all, so there are plenty of casual viewers across the country who probably don’t even care much about college football. college right now. weekend, but they know the Ohio State and Penn State brands, so from a business standpoint, I understand.

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