It’s only Week 3 of the 2026 college football season and already we’re seeing some scheduling shenanigans from the top networks. Case in point: The Ohio State-Kent State game in Columbus will be Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff showcase this week, much to everyone’s disappointment.
Ohio State are coming off a stunning loss to Texas so fans will probably be interested in seeing how they respond to their first September loss in five years. But the Golden Flashes are unlikely to give the Buckeyes any sort of challenge.
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Complaining Over The Game
As of writing, Ohio State are favored by more than seven touchdowns in the game, with some sports books having them listed as 52.5-point favorites. The result is a number of fans pouting over Fox not choosing one of the litany of better options to be the noon kickoff showcase.
“It’s embarrassing for all involved that Kent State at Ohio State is Fox’s Big Noon game this week,” Zach Barnett of FootballScoop wrote on X yesterday.
Even some Ohio State fans find the move distasteful:
“Ohio State isn’t at fault cause they played Texas, but the Big Ten needs to require every team play a P4 team in the non con. And they also need to go to 10 conference games. Us and Indiana shouldn’t be allowed to do the BS we’ve done this year,” one user remarked in the replies.
“The issue is OSU v Air gets 5M viewers,” another user lamented. “Colorado with Deion 2 years ago @ Northwestern is a no brainer Big Noon Kickoff game. Instead FOX just runs the football and makes the safe choice.”
“Sadly, I can’t tell if this was the last or second to last week in the TV contract draft,” wrote a third. “That said, FOX owns the VT @ Maryland. Why the hell is that not featured?”
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There were certainly no shortage of better options that FOX could have agreed to when working out the scheduling for Week 3. USC-Rutgers somehow landed on CBS while Colorado-Northwestern is a night game.
But Virginia Tech-Maryland being a night game on FS1 is probably the biggest missed opportunity. That’s a game that just about everyone expects to be competitive and while it may not have the massive, built-in audience that Ohio State does, it’s far less likely to be over in the first half or even the first quarter than the Ohio State-Kent State game is.
Which game do you think Fox should have put in this timeslot?
