Ohio State AD Ross Bjork calls out Big Ten over scheduling: 'Our fans deserve some marquee night games'

For years, Ohio State fans have complained that their football team has too many noon kickoffs. On Thursday, Buckeyes athletic director Ross Bjork joined in on OSU fans’ protests.

“Our fans deserve some marquee night games,” Bjork said, per Lettermen Row‘s Specer Holbrook. “We have carried the day for Big Noon.”

As the Big Ten’s primary rights holder, Fox receives the top pick in the yearly network selection that sets kickoff times. The broadcasting company always chooses the Ohio State-Michigan game.

From there, Fox, CBS and NBC take turns picking teams to broadcast. As one of, if not the biggest, brand in the Big Ten, Fox often picks to broadcast Ohio State games. Moreover, the company routinely makes the Ohio State games the Big Noon Saturday games of the week.

Since its premiere in 2019, Big Noon Saturday has covered 22 Ohio State games, more than any other Big Ten program. Moreover, the popular college football show has already announced that it will be traveling to Columbus to cover Ohio State’s showdown against Texas in Week 1 of the 2025 campaign.

Naturally, the game is scheduled for a noon kickoff. However, in May, Ross Bjork said that he tried to push for the game to start at a later time, or to even be on a different day. Nonetheless, Texas refused to move the game’s start time.

“For these kind of games, especially a nonconference season-opener, playing at night has a special feel,” Bjork said. “We tried as many different options as possible, including moving the game to Sunday night.

“If TV wants to move the game – the date of the game – then the visiting team has a right to (not) consent… I can’t blame Texas for not agreeing to move the game to Sunday.”

Thus, in what’s become a common occurrence, Ohio State fans will be up bright and early to swarm the “The Shoe” this fall. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte wasn’t shy in explaining his reasoning for denying Bjork’s request.

“Why would I want to move the game to Sunday night and have a short week for our boys that were just told we were kicking off at high noon?” Del Conte said. “That was never about moving the time of the day.

“It was just, ‘Hey, do you want to move the day?’ We’re contractually obligated to this day. That was it. The craziness is, ‘Oh my God, they said no.’  I just said no to Sunday. I gotta go to church. I mean, hot dang.”