Don't Blame FOX For Ohio State Versus Texas Noon Kickoff, Decision Was On The Longhorns – OutKick

This decision was on Texas.
DESTIN, FL – After Ohio State fans lost their minds over the Texas game kicking off at noon for the season-opening matchup, a lot of that hatred was directed at FOX Sports for its Big Noon Kickoff. Turns out, that anger should be directed at the team from the SEC. 
As previously reported, the Longhorns shut down the idea of moving the game from Saturday, which threw a wrench into the plans of FOX Sports. But, there was a reason why Texas decided it would not change the time of the game. 
The Buckeyes did not want to play their highly anticipated game against the Longhorns at 12 p.m. ET on the opening Saturday of the season. Seeing that Ohio State played numerous games during that window in the 2024 season, fans made it abundantly clear that another noon kickoff was not the route to take with such a premier game. 
Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, the decision came down to one day. According to FOX Sports president of insights and analytics Michael Mulvihill, the Longhorns were not willing to move the game from Saturday to Sunday evening in Columbus, Ohio, he told Front Office Sports. 
There was a thought that putting the game at night would satisfy the Buckeyes, given that ESPN could easily do the same next season on the return trip to Austin, Texas. But, there was a problem with giving Ohio State a night game in the Horseshoe. They would've had to move the contest to Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, which Texas was not going to budge on. 
If they were to have moved the game to Sunday, it would've given the Longhorns one less day of rest heading into the next week. Now, there's not much that would've stopped them in the way of team travel or using an extra day to prepare. But, changing your plans for the next week is not something that Texas was willing to do. 
Ohio State enjoy the home game against Minnesota. (Getty Images)
Michael Muvihill reportedly gave Ohio State the chance to move the game to Sunday evening, which would've gone up against Notre Dame versus Miami on ABC. Sure, that would've forced college football fans to make a decision on which game to pay attention to, but FOX would seemingly be more than willing to go head-to-head with DIsney in a primetime matchup. 
But any decision on changing the date of a game must be approved by both parties. In this case, Texas was reportedly not willing to make the switch, leading to the contest being played at noon on Saturday. 
As you can tell by the social media reaction, plenty of fans, and not just Ohio State or Texas, were upset with the move to put one of the premier games of the weekend at noon. 
I hope fans of both teams can get their tailgating started as the sun rises in Columbus come Labor Day Weekend.
This move obviously led to plenty of backlash, but it was pointed at the wrong people.
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