While many Ohio State fans would like to see the Buckeyes play more night games and fewer noon games, Ohio State’s players – at least the ones who spoke to the media this week – are perfectly fine with playing in the early afternoon.
Kickoff times have been a big topic of discussion among Ohio State fans this week after it was announced that next week’s top-five showdown with Indiana would be a noon game on FOX, which means all of Ohio State’s last six games of the 2024 regular season will be noon games. Despite having eight home games this season, Ohio State will end the regular season having played just one home night game – against Western Michigan in Week 2 – and three total primetime games.
Historically, fans became accustomed to the biggest games being played at night, and night games often draw more raucous crowds than their afternoon counterparts, especially when they feature a marquee opponent. Since the launch of FOX’s Big Noon Saturday in 2019, however, many of Ohio State’s most-anticipated games have been selected for that time slot as FOX’s game of the week.
Some Buckeye fans believe OSU should push back against being selected to play on Big Noon so frequently. The Ohio State football program itself, however, hasn’t expressed any public opposition to playing so many noon games. To the contrary, Ohio State has actually requested not to be scheduled to play in night games in November; the New York Post reported Tuesday that Ohio State (as well as Michigan) have stipulations in the Big Ten’s TV contract that they can’t be assigned to play night games without their permission.
Given that, the preponderance of noon games for Ohio State doesn’t seem likely to end any time soon, at least as long as FOX remains the Big Ten’s primary television partner, which it will be through at least the 2029 season.
The Ohio State players who were asked about kickoff times during Wednesday’s media interviews at OSU say they’re happy to continue playing noon games regularly.
“We love it. We like to play noon games,” said Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate. “We like to wake up and go straight to the field and play. The earlier the game is, the more time you've got on the back end of your day.”
Every Ohio State player who was asked about noon games vs. night games this week gave the same reasoning as Tate for why they like noon games: Less time spent waiting around at the team hotel before the game and time to relax on Saturday night after the game is over.
“I really don't mind 12:00. We get in, get out, have a good game, get to lay on the couch after that and watch the games,” said Ohio State tight end Jelani Thurman.
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard and linebacker Sonny Styles each said they understand why fans want more night games and acknowledged that the atmosphere for those games is exciting. But they both said they personally like to get up and go rather than wait around all day to play.
“There's something I kind of like about just getting up and going. There's less thinking involved,” Howard said. “Sitting in the hotel, for me, I just get antsy. I'm like, ‘Man, I just want to go.’ Like, ‘I just want to go play this game.’ And I don't like sitting around all day, just waiting. Obviously, the fans – would it be cool to have a night game? Sure. But I'm not worried about it. I'll play whenever they tell me to play.”
Like Howard, Styles and Thurman said it doesn’t really matter to them what time the game kicks off as they like playing no matter what time the game is played.
“I just show up, honestly. It don't really matter to me what time the game is,” Styles said. “Night atmosphere games are cool, but I like getting up and going. Night games, you got to sit around all day and wait for them. I understand why people want night games. The atmosphere is definitely exciting.”
Ohio State’s coaches have the same reasons to prefer playing at noon than at night, though Ryan Day didn’t express a preference for any specific kickoff time when asked about the fan backlash surrounding noon games on Tuesday. He says his focus is on preparing his team to play whenever and wherever it’s asked to play – which this week means preparing to play Northwestern inside a baseball stadium at Wrigley Field – and that he’ll leave the issue of kickoff times for others in Ohio State’s administration to address.
“Well, listen, I've got to deal with a lot of fan backlash for other things other than the times of games,” Day quipped. “So I'm going to leave that for other people to deal with. I've got other things I've got to deal with. So whatever they tell us to play, we're going to play. It doesn't matter where it is. It could be in a baseball field. It could be 11 a.m, it could be at night. Whatever it is, we're going to put the football down and go play, and I'll worry about the team.”
Chip Kelly’s only comment about kickoff times during his press conference on Tuesday also came in the form of a joke, indicating that he wants to play at whatever time Howard will perform his best.
“Will said if he gets to play at noon, he can complete 80% of his passes. So I think the controversy’s over,” Kelly quipped, as three of Howard’s five games this season in which he’s completed 80% or more of his passes have been noon games. “I know a lot of people have problems with what we're doing, but if it means a quarterback can complete 80% of his passes, we'll take it.”
Aside from making its fans happy, one other reason it could behoove Ohio State to push for fewer noon games and more home night games is recruiting, as it’s difficult for out-of-state recruits to travel to Columbus for noon games when they have high school games on Friday night. Other than that, though, Day says playing at noon is just something the Buckeyes have to adapt to, and he thinks they’ve done a good job with that.
“The time of game sometimes can affect just who's able to make it from out of state a little bit further away. That's about it,” Day said in terms of the challenges of playing at noon. “And just the one thing that we've done, we know that we have these noon games here in the back half of the season, so we've just been really working hard on getting guys to bed early at night and then waking them up early in the morning just to kind of get their biorhythms in order. They've done a good job of that. So that's about it. Other than that, we're playing football.”
