MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Texas blocked Ohio State from moving its marquee season opener against the Longhorns to Sunday night, but not because of the kickoff time, athletics director Chis Del Conte said Wednesday.
Ohio State proposed moving the season opener scheduled for Noon ET on Saturday, Aug. 30 to Sunday night, but Texas nixed the idea because of shorter preparation time for its Week 2 matchup, Del Conte said. Speculation that Texas didn’t want the game played in front of a hyped crowd of Buckeyes at night was misinformed, Del Conte added.
“Why would I want to move the game to Sunday night and have a short week for our boys that were just told we were kicking off at high noon?” Del Conte said Wednesday outside the SEC’s spring meetings. “That was never about moving the time of the day, it was just, ‘Hey, do you want to move the day?’ We’re contractually obligated to this day. That was it. The craziness is, ‘Oh my god, they said no.’ I just said no to Sunday. I gotta go to church. I mean, hot dang.”
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247Sports first reported Texas nixed the idea, which Ohio State athletics director Ross Bjork presented to FOX. FOX agreed to make the move, if Texas was compliant, according to Front Office Sports.
Speculation on the game moving was sparked May 12, when FOX did not announce a kickoff time for the game after making announcements for other games. FOX owns the first selection among the conference’s three media partners — FOX, NBC and CBS — with games slotted at Noon ET on Saturdays.
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FOX’s “Big Noon” game of the week has been a hit for the network since 2019. Moving the game to Sunday night likely would have pitted the game against ABC’s Notre Dame-Miami showdown set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. FOX Sports’ president of insights and analytics told Front Office Sports the network would have experienced a “minor” loss in viewership with the move to Sunday night, but the network was still willing to move the game for Ohio State.
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