For a team that is still in the midst of defending its national title and has not tasted defeat in the regular season in nearly two full years, the Indiana Hoosiers are finding primetime games hard to come by.
Last week’s game against Nebraska was a noon kickoff, this week’s massive regular season home game with Ohio State will be a noon kickoff, and yesterday it was announced that their October 24 tilt with Michigan will also be a noon kickoff. Combine that with the two noon kickoffs they had to start the season and that makes five noon games in their first eight games.
By contrast, Ohio State only had four noon games all season as defending champions last year. The year before, Michigan only had three prior to their Michigan rivalry game. And in 2023, when Georgia was the defending champion, they had a grand total of two noon games all year.
Indiana has had only two night games – one on a Friday and another that was Big Ten Network exclusive. They have not had a Saturday night primetime game in the regular season since September 20 when they played Illinois on NBC.
Fans Lash Out
Indiana fans were fuming over their lack of primetime games against their bigger opponents.
“This is a joke right?” one fan wrote on X.
“I will never see a game kick off at 3:30 or later ever again,” another lamented.
“omgggg WE’RE TIRED OF NOON,” a third declared.
“Noon kicks freaking suck.”
“Another noon game for your reigning national champs…”
© Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Clearly the networks don’t believe that Indiana is worthy of occupying a primetime slot despite their status as the reigning national champions. Though to be fair, Indiana football wasn’t exactly a ratings juggernaut before they became an on-field juggernaut once Curt Cignetti took over the program.
Networks don’t seem to know what to do about a brand new power emerging in college football. They’re defaulting to “safe” options with built in fanbases that have been around for decades.
It could take just as long for Indiana to become that kind of college football team in the eyes of the powers that be.
