Why is Ohio State-Michigan at noon? Explaining historical kickoff time for 'The Game'

It is one other midday kickoff for Ohio State soccer in Week 14 of the faculty soccer season.

However in contrast to previous weeks, there may not be any backlash from Ohio State followers on the early begin time. Welcome to “The Recreation,” one in all faculty soccer’s oldest and most well-known rivalries between Ohio State and Michigan.

Although this 12 months’s assembly between the second-ranked Buckeyes (10-1, 7-1 in Massive Ten play) and Wolverines (6-5, 4-4) is probably not as star-studded as previous contests, it’ll nonetheless be a fierce heavyweight struggle that may happen throughout a standard kickoff time between the 2 packages.

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Here is what that you must learn about why Ohio State vs. Michigan is being performed at midday:

Why is ‘The Recreation’ between Ohio State-Michigan performed at midday?

One phrase: custom.

As famous by The Detroit Free Press in 2023, Ohio State-Michigan has performed a midday kickoff in all however one 12 months because the Nineties. The lone 12 months it was not performed at midday was in 2006, when the Wolverines and Buckeyes had a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

That statistic has some reasoning backing it, particularly in more moderen years. It has to do with who owns the TV rights to the sport.

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With the Massive Ten’s main broadcast supplier being Fox, the community owns the fitting to the sport. Actually, Fox used one in all its first two picks within the “fantasy faculty soccer draft” with CBS and NBC to make sure the community had “The Recreation” on its lineup for this season.

So Ohio State-Michigan will as soon as once more be featured within the “Massive Midday Saturday” Recreation of the Week slot for Fox, which makes use of the midday TV slot for its greatest video games of the week. Furthermore, “The Recreation” has been the highest-rated recreation in faculty soccer the final three seasons.

“We maintain the highest three picks within the Massive Ten. We may have that yearly for the subsequent a number of years. It is a actually advantageous place to be in,” Fox president of perception and analytics Michael Mulvihill advised “The Joel Klatt Present” in Could. “Any faculty soccer fan would see that’s the apparent first choice.”

Former Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith advised Cleveland.com in 2014 that custom and chilly climate within the north in late November have been explanation why he by no means agreed to maneuver Ohio State-Michigan out of the midday window — except for that 2006 recreation, in fact.

“I’ve not been requested to play it at night time,” Smith stated in 2014. “But when I used to be, it might be very troublesome to assume I’d agree to try this, primarily due to the time of 12 months.”

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Certainly, Climate.com notes that Saturday may have a excessive of 30 levels and a low of 21.

So, even with the Massive Ten increasing to incorporate CBS, NBC and Peacock as broadcasting companions, custom — and climate elements — appear to be they will not take a backseat to TV income on the subject of the Ohio State-Michigan recreation.