Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images And the Sky is blue, water wets, and other assorted truths of life. Nebraska plays on Black Friday. Alabama plays Tennessee on the third Saturday in October.* Michigan and Ohio State play “The Game” at noon on the last week of the regular season. The Whiteout, a spectacle that put the “color out” tradition on the map by being the best to do it, is Penn State’s addition to what makes college football what it is. The “performative, but in an authentic way,” nature of the event, as Josh Pate put it recently, coupled with, traditionally, one of the best opponents on the schedule, makes for a crazed fan base who have an intimate role in influencing the outcome of the game. That performance, of course, is now at risk. We used to live in a world where the Big Ten’s network partners, Fox and Disney, had first and second picks, respectively. Fox, as they do every year, would pick the Michigan vs Ohio State game. Disney would follow up with the Whiteout, against whatever opponent they were facing (normally it fell to the game against either Ohio State or Michigan). Since ESPN, the Disney property that televises most college football games, happens to be a sports entity, they understand the value of the pageantry of college football. As a result, every Whiteout on a Disney property was at night. Likewise, when Disney owned most of the rights to Big Ten games, they made sure to protect Ohio State and Michigan’s wish to play at noon. Because they understood the value of keeping traditions alive. With renegotiated contracts, and re-renegotiated contracts, we now live in a world where Fox gets the pick of the litter, and the other network partners are left with the scraps. Unlike Disney, Fox is not at all interested in keeping traditions together. This puts Penn State in a position where the Whiteout is either not as meaningful as it could be, either due to not playing the best opponent on the home schedule, or not playing at a time that displays the event’s full potential. Fox doesn’t seem to care. Fox President of Insight and Analytics, Michael Mulvihill, realized a great opportunity to showcase the best games on the schedule at noon, in an effort to win the time window. Going up against an established entity in ABC and its own primetime event was proving to not be as fruitful, thus, Big Noon Kickoff began. To their credit, it has been a wild success. CBS owned the 3:30 window for years. ABC owns primetime. Now, with Big Nook Kickoff, Fox owns the early window. With the success of Big Noon comes the drawback, and the conundrum Penn State faces today. One of the best traditions in college football is at risk of being diminished, and someone, Fox, could do something about it, but instead the are, seemingly, choosing to sit on their pick, instead of working with the program and other partner networks to keep what makes college football great. So my plea to you, Fox executives: If deviating from the noon window is a bridge too far for you, do us all the favor and pick Oregon vs Michigan now. You’re sure to get enough eyeballs on that game to “win the window” just the same. And we, the people who still care enough about our traditions, get to keep what makes the Whiteout special. Isn’t that why Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA are members of the Big Ten now? So you can showcase them? So Fox, do us all a solid, and showcase them, if you’re not going to play showcase the Whiteout at night. *Most years. Source: https://www.blackshoediaries.com/2024/6 ... on-kickoff