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Report: Ohio State, Michigan could be involved in the Pac-12’s disastrous morning kickoff idea
By Paul Harvey
Published:
This sure sounds like it would be a terrible idea, at least for the Pac-12 teams involved.
The battle for broadcast rights and television ratings never stops, and Fox Sports is reportedly investigating a particularly unique kickoff time that could affect some B1G teams. According to John Ourand with Sports Business Journal Daily, the Pac-12 indicated the conference would not schedule any kickoff times at 9 am local time in 2019. However, the conference has not ruled out scheduling games at that time in 2020.
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The discussion arises from a desire of Fox Sports to capitalize on the noon Eastern time slot of college football. And if the network is able to get a Pac-12 game moved to one of those time slots, Ourand believes it could affect non-conference games set for Michigan or Ohio State:
“The most likely matchups next season could involve non-conference games that include Big Ten schools that already would have been established in that window this season. Washington hosts Michigan in Week 1 in 2020, while Oregon hosts Ohio State in Week 2. I would expect Fox to push for one of those matchups to be the Pac-12’s first 9:00am local time kickoff.”
A 9 am local kickoff time would be 12 pm EST time, which is not abnormal for teams. However, such a kickoff time would likely produce a weird environment and unique set of circumstances for the home team. The timing could put the home team at a unique disadvantage.
It sounds like a weird idea, but we will just have to wait and see if it happens.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.