Game time for Whiteout/Washington, announced
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
My daughter signed us up for a year of Peacock right before the summer Olympics for $2/mth. This will be the first time I’ll use it since the Olympics.
Excellent article by Audrey Snyder about how this all works and why Fox did what it did; note they could have screwed PSU by selecting the White Out Game too bud didn’t:
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Here’s how we got here: Fox had selections one, two, five, six and seven in the annual network draft between itself, CBS and NBC. Think of the draft like you would a fantasy football draft. There’s a big board and networks take turns. This Penn State-Ohio State game was not selected within the top four picks.
“This game was on the board for us at No. 5 when we have three consecutive picks and there’s just no way that I can allow this game to fall to the eighth pick,” Mulvihill said. “That would almost be malpractice on my part. … Given the draft played out the way it did, it was just obvious that we had to take it.”
The announcement of a noon kick this month wasn’t a surprise, but Penn State fans have posted on social media about potentially boycotting “Big Noon Kickoff” and instead going to ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which is also on-location outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Mulvihill hopes that doesn’t happen, but, he also knows putting the conference’s marquee game at noon will never win everyone over.
“It’s our job to put the schools that we’re partners with in front of as many people as possible,” Mulvihill said. “If we can provide our schools as much exposure as possible, that should not just benefit Fox, but that should benefit those programs. What we’ve found over the last 6 years is that it’s very clear that putting our best game on at noon is what delivers the biggest audiences for these games.”
What Fox found was that Penn State-Ohio State, which was the Big Noon game the last time the Buckeyes were in State College two years ago, performs about a third better at noon ratings-wise than when it’s aired in prime time, Mulvihill said.
“There’s a belief that prime time is somehow inherently better, but that’s not really matched up by the analysis,” he said.
Still, that doesn’t mean fans have to like it. TV ratings are often the farthest thing from their minds. They care about Penn State having a team that can push an Ohio State roster with a national title or bust mindset. Saturday is also the last time Ohio State will play in Beaver Stadium until 2028. Penn State heads to Columbus next year and then cycles through games against Michigan in 2026 and 2027 before the Buckeyes return.
At noon, there’s less time to tailgate. Anyone heading downtown Friday night — and this town is already brimming with anticipation for Saturday — will likely need to turn in before last call. The Beaver Stadium traffic woes that are notorious around here for noon games — the byproduct of everyone arriving within a tight window as opposed to traffic flowing throughout the day as it would for a 3:30 p.m. or night game — are bound to crop up Saturday morning.
“(That) 7:30 energy is always different,” said middle linebacker Kobe King. “With a noon game, we just get right to it.”
Saturday is the first time in 25 years Beaver Stadium will host two teams ranked in the top five of the AP poll. As the dueling ESPN “College Gameday” and Fox “Big Noon Kickoff” pre-game show sets get constructed in the parking lots outside Beaver Stadium, the magnitude of Saturday is clear. It’s an inflection point for this season, for the College Football Playoff race and for a community that lives and breathes with the ebbs and flows of each fall Saturday.
Mulvihill understands the desire of students and fans who want to sleep in before diving into the game in prime time. But, ratings and television money are king.
“I think there’s a less vocal part of the fan base that appreciates the daytime starts because we’ve heard from coaches and ADs throughout the conference that they like the logistics of the daytime starts,” Mulvihill said. “When you play a night game on the road, your team may not get home until 3 o’clock in the morning.”
He understands why some fans still haven’t wrapped their heads around what was viewed as an unconventional idea in the spring of 2019 when Fox gathered with Big Ten head coaches and athletic directors to pitch them this idea of taking the conference’s top game that week and slotting it at noon. At the time, Penn State head coach James Franklin was one of the biggest supporters.
Wednesday night, Franklin, tongue in cheek, said he loves a noon start.
“I’ve seen it all over social media,” Franklin said. “Our fans could not be more excited. … Nothing better than a noon game in Happy Valley.”
While Penn State’s annual White Out game is next Saturday against Washington (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten), Fox did work with Penn State to ensure the White Out would not be at noon. While there’s very little Penn State can do to prevent any network from selecting its game, there was an agreement that by selecting Penn State-Ohio State at noon, Fox would not also snag the White Out.
And, let’s not forget perhaps the other piece of all this. As fans at home settle in to watch Penn State-Ohio State, viewers in two key states in the presidential election will continue to be bombarded with campaign ads during commercials. That, too, is a large reason this game ended up on Fox at noon.
“The election piece was absolutely part of it,” Mulvihill said. “I’m sure there’s fatigue around campaign advertising in Pennsylvania because it might be the most important state in the election, but we did take that pretty seriously that the game is three days out from election day and we knew it’d be one of the biggest games of the season and we wanted to capitalize on that advertising opportunity.”
—-
Here’s how we got here: Fox had selections one, two, five, six and seven in the annual network draft between itself, CBS and NBC. Think of the draft like you would a fantasy football draft. There’s a big board and networks take turns. This Penn State-Ohio State game was not selected within the top four picks.
“This game was on the board for us at No. 5 when we have three consecutive picks and there’s just no way that I can allow this game to fall to the eighth pick,” Mulvihill said. “That would almost be malpractice on my part. … Given the draft played out the way it did, it was just obvious that we had to take it.”
The announcement of a noon kick this month wasn’t a surprise, but Penn State fans have posted on social media about potentially boycotting “Big Noon Kickoff” and instead going to ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which is also on-location outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Mulvihill hopes that doesn’t happen, but, he also knows putting the conference’s marquee game at noon will never win everyone over.
“It’s our job to put the schools that we’re partners with in front of as many people as possible,” Mulvihill said. “If we can provide our schools as much exposure as possible, that should not just benefit Fox, but that should benefit those programs. What we’ve found over the last 6 years is that it’s very clear that putting our best game on at noon is what delivers the biggest audiences for these games.”
What Fox found was that Penn State-Ohio State, which was the Big Noon game the last time the Buckeyes were in State College two years ago, performs about a third better at noon ratings-wise than when it’s aired in prime time, Mulvihill said.
“There’s a belief that prime time is somehow inherently better, but that’s not really matched up by the analysis,” he said.
Still, that doesn’t mean fans have to like it. TV ratings are often the farthest thing from their minds. They care about Penn State having a team that can push an Ohio State roster with a national title or bust mindset. Saturday is also the last time Ohio State will play in Beaver Stadium until 2028. Penn State heads to Columbus next year and then cycles through games against Michigan in 2026 and 2027 before the Buckeyes return.
At noon, there’s less time to tailgate. Anyone heading downtown Friday night — and this town is already brimming with anticipation for Saturday — will likely need to turn in before last call. The Beaver Stadium traffic woes that are notorious around here for noon games — the byproduct of everyone arriving within a tight window as opposed to traffic flowing throughout the day as it would for a 3:30 p.m. or night game — are bound to crop up Saturday morning.
“(That) 7:30 energy is always different,” said middle linebacker Kobe King. “With a noon game, we just get right to it.”
Saturday is the first time in 25 years Beaver Stadium will host two teams ranked in the top five of the AP poll. As the dueling ESPN “College Gameday” and Fox “Big Noon Kickoff” pre-game show sets get constructed in the parking lots outside Beaver Stadium, the magnitude of Saturday is clear. It’s an inflection point for this season, for the College Football Playoff race and for a community that lives and breathes with the ebbs and flows of each fall Saturday.
Mulvihill understands the desire of students and fans who want to sleep in before diving into the game in prime time. But, ratings and television money are king.
“I think there’s a less vocal part of the fan base that appreciates the daytime starts because we’ve heard from coaches and ADs throughout the conference that they like the logistics of the daytime starts,” Mulvihill said. “When you play a night game on the road, your team may not get home until 3 o’clock in the morning.”
He understands why some fans still haven’t wrapped their heads around what was viewed as an unconventional idea in the spring of 2019 when Fox gathered with Big Ten head coaches and athletic directors to pitch them this idea of taking the conference’s top game that week and slotting it at noon. At the time, Penn State head coach James Franklin was one of the biggest supporters.
Wednesday night, Franklin, tongue in cheek, said he loves a noon start.
“I’ve seen it all over social media,” Franklin said. “Our fans could not be more excited. … Nothing better than a noon game in Happy Valley.”
While Penn State’s annual White Out game is next Saturday against Washington (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten), Fox did work with Penn State to ensure the White Out would not be at noon. While there’s very little Penn State can do to prevent any network from selecting its game, there was an agreement that by selecting Penn State-Ohio State at noon, Fox would not also snag the White Out.
And, let’s not forget perhaps the other piece of all this. As fans at home settle in to watch Penn State-Ohio State, viewers in two key states in the presidential election will continue to be bombarded with campaign ads during commercials. That, too, is a large reason this game ended up on Fox at noon.
“The election piece was absolutely part of it,” Mulvihill said. “I’m sure there’s fatigue around campaign advertising in Pennsylvania because it might be the most important state in the election, but we did take that pretty seriously that the game is three days out from election day and we knew it’d be one of the biggest games of the season and we wanted to capitalize on that advertising opportunity.”
Given how many streaming services are getting into sports, there is zero chance that they're going away. It's not great but that's where the industry is going.
So long story short, screw the fans, it’s all about us (Fox). Hey Fox
So long story short, screw the fans, it’s all about us (Fox). Hey Fox
No it’s not. “It’s all about us” (Penn State and the Big Ten). WE accepted the money the Networks paid us for the privilege to do this. Neither “FOX”, NBC, or CBS put a gun to our head. If you want us to dummy down our TV contract so we can pick what time we want on, maybe the Shopping Channel will televise us (do they still have that?) .
When you or anyone else voluntarily accepts someone’s money to preform a task or a duty you don’t necessarily like, YOU are the one whoring yourself or selling yourself out. NOT the entity paying you to do it.
So long story short, screw the fans, it’s all about us (Fox). Hey Fox
No it’s not. “It’s all about us” (Penn State and the Big Ten). WE accepted the money the Networks paid us for the privilege to do this. Neither “FOX”, NBC, or CBS put a gun to our head. If you want us to dummy down our TV contract so we can pick what time we want on, maybe the Shopping Channel will televise us (do they still have that?) .
When you or anyone else voluntarily accepts someone’s money to preform a task or a duty you don’t necessarily like, YOU are the one whoring yourself or selling yourself out. NOT the entity paying you to do it.
Can you still eat Scones in the dark?I’ll be planted firmly on the ‘cock. Hoping to get an A$$. BEATING..
I see what you are saying, however, the gist of the whole article was they made the choice to benefit themselves including a situation to maximize the political ads. That, my friend, is enough to turn me off to the whole situation. No where is there a mention of how they wanted to choose the best time slot for the home team, viewers, or the college football experience overall. They whored themselves out to political ads and padding their own pockets.
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I hate to blow your bubble, but if you don’t think Peacock (NBC) has been showing continuously annoying “political ads” over and over and over again, I have some nice green land on the Moon to sell you. In fact, if the Election was NEXT week, you would probably see MORE political ads on Peacock than over the air NBC, CBS, or FOX because they are cheaper to run.
I’m not paying another “@&$)( dime for cable, $290 per month is enough. Last year Peacock
got one NFL playoff game, Monster Energy Supercross and a couple of Mets games.
Thanks a bunch. That works.
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