Ohio State Football: Predicting Kickoff Times

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Hello everybody. Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly podcast. I'm Tony Gerdeman here as always with Tom Orr. Tom, how's it going? Tony, it is not the most wonderful time of the year for college football and college football following, but it's like 17th most wonderful time of year where we start to get TV times and networks for the fall and that means we get to sort of start reading the tea leaves and letting people know what may be possibly, we can't guarantee, but what might happen for some of the big Ohio State games this fall.

[00:00:41]And we're also about 2 weeks out for me going to Barnes & Noble every day just to see if there's a magazine on the rack.

[00:00:48]No, not today. Well, maybe tomorrow.

[00:00:50]There's always tomorrow.

[00:00:52]And so that's always a fun time as as Memorial Day approaches.

[00:00:56]But yes, we do want to talk about some kick times cuz some have come out.

[00:01:00]Two, ish.

[00:01:03]And we we knew the we knew the first one which would be Ohio State and Michigan is a 12:00 p.m. kickoff on Fox.

[00:01:09]We also learned that Oklahoma at Michigan is a 12:00 p.m.

[00:01:15]game on Fox, Tom. And so the understanding at this point is that Fox gets the first three picks of weeks over the season and then CBS, NBC in whichever order.

[00:01:26]And so the first thing that came to my mind when we saw these two games announced is that, hey, this means that one of Indiana Ohio State and Ohio State Oregon won't be a noon noon game.

[00:01:39]And I think we can answer that here in a in a sec, but I I believe Tom, I think Michigan Okla- Oklahoma Michigan properly was the number three pick and I think the number two pick here is Ohio State at Indiana.

[00:01:54]I think that's right and I want to circle back real quickly cuz you said one word that I think people maybe have glossed over and our understanding is because this is one of these things where we talk to these TV network executives at Big Ten media days every year and it's really just like they're sitting there trying to eat lunch and Tony and I are trying to buttonhole them on the specifics the TV network draft and how they how this you know the real specifics and who gets to pick in what order and how is that decided and does it change year to year and can you trade and there was a couple years ago one of the guys like looked at one of the people it was like who wants to know this stuff? Like you guys are really into this stuff. It's like yeah we're we are trying to get answers. And here's the funny thing no one ever wants to actually give you the answers cuz they all they all want this like little bit of air of mystery. So this is sort of our best guess as to what all of this means. And as you said our best guess according to everything we've seen everything we've heard everything we've been told is that Fox gets the first pick of weeks. It's not games. You get your three weeks that first three weeks that Fox chooses to have the first pick they get those first three weeks. And so they've chosen week I think it's 13 this year which is the Michigan week and it's week two this year which is the Michigan hosting Oklahoma week. And so yeah I I would say that the other week that I would expect based on the TV ratings from the Indiana Ohio State Big Ten championship game last year which did just bonkers ratings.

[00:03:26]I would expect that that was probably the second week that was picked. So that'll be October 20 something >> 17th 17th. Okay. October 17th.

[00:03:36]So those are probably based on best available guesses best available information right now. Those are probably the three weeks that you can sort of pencil in Ohio State or pencil in here's what the Big Noon kickoff game is that week. And then the interesting thing is, okay, so then Ohio State-Oregon is probably the most intriguing game on the schedule other than that. And that means, well, that's not going to be a big noon kickoff at Ohio Stadium.

[00:04:05]And you immediately go, could this be a night game? And probably not because Miami at Notre Dame is already scheduled to be a 7:30 kickoff on NBC that same weekend.

[00:04:17]Which leads leads you to speculate pretty not I don't know, confidently, but maybe this would lead you to think this is probably going to be a CBS game at 3:30.

[00:04:30]Which then, does that mean CBS has the fourth pick? NBC has the fifth pick?

[00:04:35]And this whole thing because they they don't even want to tell us that. They don't want to tell us how many picks they've got, when they pick.

[00:04:40]But this feels to me like this would be a top four pick.

[00:04:46]And if it's a top four pick, then this would be CBS. Now, some of the other options in terms of like the big big 10 games and you know, you could throw in the big 12 in here. I think the days of Deion Sanders being interesting are gone, so don't worry about Colorado.

[00:05:03]Can Texas Tech get involved in some of this? I don't know that they're picking anything for Texas Tech because the Fox also has the big 12 rights.

[00:05:11]Um but some other interesting games that, you know, of weeks where maybe maybe these would factor in like Indiana-Michigan, Indiana at Michigan is something. USC at Indiana. Now, how how reticent is Fox to put the West Coast teams on at noon? They don't really want to do it, but they will if they have to.

[00:05:30]Penn State at Michigan, I think is a still a marquee game even if both of those programs are trending way down.

[00:05:37]Way down. Michigan State at Michigan, people still watch it.

[00:05:41]Michigan at Oregon, that is a November 14th.

[00:05:45]And interestingly for that one Boston College and Notre Dame already are set for a 3:30 kick on NBC. So, that may That's likely a night game. And you may not even have to draft it high to get it because Fox isn't going to take it.

[00:06:00]And CBS, maybe CBS grabs it.

[00:06:03]But you know, you got other West Coast stuff. Oregon USC is interesting.

[00:06:08]Nebraska Oregon is a little interesting.

[00:06:12]USC at Penn State is another game where it like These are all games that could factor into the maybe the top five, top six as we look at this. But if we go to just just week one, Tom, which is Ball State. It's a terrible week all around.

[00:06:28]And terrible weeks mean this could be Ball State could be 3:30 on Big Ten Network or 12:00 p.m. on Fox. And I don't think there's any way to to tell.

[00:06:38]Yeah, that's that's a week where again, the way they do this is you're not drafting games, you're drafting weeks where you have the first pick. That's going to be one where based on the games on the schedule that week, there's not going to be a lot of very highly sought-after games. So, week one is probably going to get picked very, very low in that rotation. Because that's, you know, this is the first oasis after you've been crawling through the desert for 100 days. So, you're not going to be you're going to drink the puddle water and you're going to be happy about it. And so, I'm fully expecting I think Matt Sarz, who I've had on the morning show a number of times, who does a lot of this even in a more detailed way than we do cuz he does it nationally.

[00:07:19]He has that sort of projected as Ohio State Ball State as a 3:30 kick on CBS.

[00:07:24]You know, that's obviously sort of to be determined, but that's, you know, we Was it the Akron game a couple of years ago? There was a There was a game that was uh like an Ohio State versus an an not particularly attractive in-state opponent. And it was either the Big Noon Kickoff or the 3:30 CBS game and it was kind of like, what? But there was not a lot of other attractive games and Ohio State fans are going to drink the puddle water and be grateful for it. So, that's you know, if you don't like that, you know, develop a better taste in puddle water, I guess. I don't know, but it's this is this is just kind of ball parking, but yeah, I would I would think that that's probably going to be a much higher profile game than you'd think.

[00:08:06]The Kent State game week three, that's the one where you're going to have a random primetime Big Ten Network game. I would guess that that's probably it week three. Cuz you there are all these contractual requirements where every team has to be on the Big Ten Network and every team also needs to have a big A Big Ten game on the Big Ten Network. So, you know, plan on like the Kent State game and maybe the Maryland game or the Northwestern game being the the Big Ten Network games this season.

[00:08:38]Is there a contractual obligation to be on Peacock or is that just like a basketball thing? I can't remember. No, it's NBC kind of has the ability to do whatever and so they very well may put a game on Peacock, but there's not I as far as I'm aware there's not a requirement cuz that's really just up to that's really up to NBC. So, Big Ten Network, you know, if NBC wants to put all their games on Peacock, they certainly could do that, but they're going to choose to put them on on NBC, especially and then we're really going to dive into the nitty-gritty.

[00:09:11]If you are in the like October to the first week of November when you have a midterm election cycle coming up and you have a bunch of Midwestern states that are going to be real battlegrounds in in the political environment that you're going to have lots of TV, you know, political TV ads, that's going to be a time when you're going to want to have you know, the teams from Michigan, the teams from Ohio, the teams from Pennsylvania, the teams from Wiscon- all those kind of teams, you're going to want those on your, you know, on your air as much as possible during those weeks.

[00:09:44]Well, and yeah, anything on NBC is also going to be on Peacock. I I was just thinking like Peacock exclusive, which which they do for basketball, but I don't think you would do that necessarily for um I I don't see any of these being that.

[00:09:55]And then that Kent State weekend, Michigan State and Notre Dame are already set for NBC at 7:30, so if perhaps Big Ten Network would be fine competing against MSU at Notre Dame at 7:30 at night. Illinois is interesting, which is week four, September 26th.

[00:10:13]No, nothing there's no like major games that weekend in terms of Oregon and USC is that same weekend, that's not really I I guess maybe that keeps doesn't keep Ohio State and Illinois from being a night game, but um you know, obviously it takes one of those two p.m. slots that the afternoon slots away, uh afternoon evening. So, I I have no idea what that's going to be yet. We need a little bit more information and we'll get some more of that information later in the month when they'll announce a couple more times over the course of a, you know, cuz you we usually get these the first Well, I we'll get it three or four the first three weeks around May 30th in that that time frame and maybe like that Indiana Ohio State Indiana game I'm going to assume will be announced at any point that it's a noon kick as well, but I have no idea.

[00:11:05]The Illinois and then the the the next week at Iowa could be anything to me. Yeah, exactly.

[00:11:11]And one thing that will help us sort of fill in the, you know, color within the lines here is when NBC starts announcing games or CBS starts announcing games, that when they announce that, that's because they know we have the number one pick and we're going to want this. So, then you can sort of say, "Okay, CBS has the number one pick in week I'm just going to pull a number out, five, and NBC has the number one pick in week seven. And so, therefore, you can sort of start plugging some things in and figuring out some some orders of selections.

[00:11:40]And then, you know, and then, hey, it's going to go back to Fox at some point soon. So, then, maybe that does mean that the Ohio State-India-Illinois game that week is going to be a is going to be a Fox first week, and then that's the most attractive game that week. You know, the NBC having a game a night game on a week where Oregon plays at USC, that feels like that's probably a missed opportunity for them because that's a game where that game can't be at noon, and that's the cannot be a big noon kickoff because that would be a 9:00 a.m. Pacific time kickoff, and they have not Fox has asked a lot of its Big Ten corporate champion partners, but they have not yet asked anyone to do a 9:00 a.m. local kickoff. That probably is not going to start this year. So, that's either a 3:30 C- CBS game or a, you know, maybe they do a Peacock exclusive kind of thing. But, yeah, it's There are There are a bunch of sort of like little things little pieces that we can start to put together. But, yeah, still still a long way to go before we can tell you, you know, yeah, we're pretty we're confident enough that in this that you can book your hotels around what we're sort of expecting. We're not We're not there yet, and that may be a little while until we till we're there.

[00:12:47]Uh we skipped over Texas, which I fully expect to be an 8:00 p.m. primetime ABC, ESPN, whichever.

[00:12:54]Uh I don't think there's any question there. I don't know why they would do anything other than that. The Maryland game that same weekend, Stanford and Notre Dame are already set for a 3:30 kick on NBC. You mentioned this as a possibility. It's just, you know, you got to put a night game somewhere. This would would not be a a bad issue a bad time to do it. I don't know if Ohio State week would be thrilled to do a night game and then go into a road game at Indiana. I don't know if I've ever said those words before in my life.

[00:13:19]But, that's what that follows. And then, they've got the week off between Indiana and USC, and you know, that's going to be 3:30 or a 7:30 as we know. Still don't know which yet. The Oregon game and we mentioned that Miami and Notre Dame are that same night.

[00:13:35]It could be, you know, technically it could be, but I think we fully expect as we said that to be a 3:30 game.

[00:13:42]Then the following week is Northwestern.

[00:13:45]Boston College and Notre Dame are at 3:30 on NBC at that time.

[00:13:50]So, you know, this is another one where I don't think this is a highly sought-after week. I'm just looking Michigan and Oregon is that same week and so Fox isn't going to carry. USC and Indiana is that same week.

[00:14:02]Um that might be more in the wheelhouse if if Fox had a a hierarchy of picks that week, you're probably going with that one instead of Ohio State-Northwestern.

[00:14:11]So, this one's is another one where I it could be could be anywhere for me. Yeah, that that could very easily be a noon kickoff on the Big Ten Network or a 7:30 kickoff on the Big Ten Network or, you know, I I would guess that NBC's probably going to take a if the if the Notre Dame game's at 3:30 and you have in you know, important games potentially involving USC or Oregon that week, I would guess that one of those ends up there, but you know, if they pick low enough in the in the pecking order, maybe that becomes a Peacock exclusive during prime time. So, and there's you know, as we said, there's a lot of different factors that go into the different rules and the different restrictions and you have to be on this network this many times and and all that kind of stuff, but my general assumption is Ohio State is going to get picked higher in the order than you would think based on the quality of game just because Ohio State drags people to the TV in a way that no one else in the Big Ten really does. Like there are other there are other programs that get plenty of eyeballs, but if you look at the most watched college football, you know, the college football markets, the TV markets where most where college football is the most watched, it's generally Birmingham, Alabama and then a bunch of cities in the state of Ohio cuz Ohio tends to like its Ohio State football quite a bit.

[00:15:28]And we'll just throw this out there now because even as the time has gone on and this rule has gone away, there is no rule against Ohio State or the Big Ten playing night games in November. I know there are probably still people out there right now saying, "Well, what are you can't play night That's no longer a thing." Um what Once you sign over all of your games to several different networks, then they're all going to want a piece of you, and so some of those are going to be at night.

[00:15:52]And one of those that probably won't be at night is Ohio State at Nebraska because that same weekend SMU and Notre Dame are scheduled for a 7:30 kick on NBC, which is You'd look at that and that would be That'd be perfect for a night game, except that slot isn't there.

[00:16:08]So, you're looking at a 12:00 p.m. or 3:30. I'm guessing, you know, boy, that's that's an early kick out there, as we know, for a noon kick, but um I I bet I bet Ryan Day wouldn't mind a noon kick the week before Michigan game.

[00:16:24]Yeah, and that's one where I I have not looked at what else is that week. I don't know who Michigan plays that week, but if Ohio State's game is more appealing than Michigan's game, that's one where I bet it I bet that is right at the top of the list for people because that's a game where, yeah, you're playing Nebraska, and Nebraska should, you know, Nebraska's a kind of a a name brand in the sport, but also that whole game becomes about and they have Michigan on deck and oh boy, you have Michigan coming next week, and oh boy, would Fox like to spend a whole week hyping the game that they have on the following week?

[00:17:00]Ryan Day, as you said, would love to have that game done and in the rearview mirror and be able to turn the page to Michigan at 3:30 Eastern as opposed to 7:00 Eastern cuz then they have to fly back home, and so you they want to get that game the week before Michigan done as early as humanly possible because as soon as you can, you know, there's a point during that game every year where you and I on Twitter are saying, "And it's Michigan week." It's like Ohio State at Indiana, three score lead in the second half, it's officially Michigan week. Everyone has turned the page right now. Pay no attention to the clock and the scoreboard. It doesn't matter at all. It's Michigan week.

[00:17:36]That's kind of They will never say that, but I think they want to turn the page to Michigan week as early as possible to move on and and be able to focus on that game cuz, you know, Nebraska, sure. You want to beat Nebraska, you need to beat Nebraska in order to make the college football playoff, but you need to you really need to handle your business the following week and that's that's the one that most seasons get judged on, not the Nebraska game.

[00:18:01]UCLA is at Michigan that weekend.

[00:18:04]Um Iowa is at Illinois.

[00:18:08]Or there's, you know, when you look at the marquee games, Northwestern at Minnesota.

[00:18:15]Calm down. Oregon at Michigan State.

[00:18:17]But, um yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if that's a that's the noon game there. So, there you go. Um and we know Ohio State is at at home against Michigan at 12:00 p.m.

[00:18:28]We will do another one of these shows once we have more information and can better project, but if you're taking notes and you have all those times down, I'm not going to repeat them and I will not acknowledge if we were wrong about any of these because we were pretty pretty wishy-washy on most of it, so you can't really pin us down. But, if we got it right, we told you so. Uh if you're going to if you're watching, go ahead and hit the thumbs up. If you're listening, a five-star rating and review for this show is always appreciated.

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