On Saturday, the No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers will face off against the No, 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in a highly-anticipated Big Ten matchup.
Though this is one of the best games of the Week 13 college football slate, the top-5 contest will not be played under the lights in a primetime slot. Because Fox Sports selected Indiana vs.
Ohio State as its “Big Noon Kickoff” game of the week, the game is scheduled to kickoff at noon EST from Ohio Stadium. This decision sparked controversy around the college football world, especially among supporters of the No. 2 Buckeyes. The Ohio State faithful are tired of their marquee matchups taking place at 11 a.m. local time.
Despite “Big Noon Kickoff’s” decision to make the trip to Columbus on Saturday, ESPN’s “College GameDay” also chose Indiana vs. Ohio State as its featured game of the week. When speaking to reporters on Friday, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit subtly referenced Fox Sports’ decision to broadcast this top-5 matchup.
With ESPN no longer included in the Big Ten’s TV deal, Herbstreit doesn’t get to call as many Ohio State games as he used to. He’s happy that ESPN picked Indiana vs. Ohio State as its featured game, despite Fox Sports’ rights to broadcast the contest.
“Selfishly, I always want to come back to Ohio State to call games. I also want to do Big Ten games. But it’s just part of the business that I’m in, and I don’t control any of that. I just kind of call the games that they tell me,” Herbstreit said. “So I miss calling Big Ten games. I especially miss calling Ohio State games for obvious reasons. But it’s cool that GameDay – I wondered when this split happened, if Game Day would still come to the games that matter on a national level. ”
“And I think it really says a lot about ESPN and the leadership of College GameDay, we still try to go to the game of the week; no matter who’s broadcasting the game, GameDay tries to go to the game,” he continued. “And this week, here we are at what we think is the biggest game of the week.
And we’ve done that all year, which is cool.” ESPN’s “College GameDay” will begin at 9 a.m. EST on Saturday. Former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields will join Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, Lee Corso and Rece Davis at the desk as this week’s celebrity guest picker.
