Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / No Home Night Games For Ohio State: What Can The Buckeyes Do About It?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning. For Tuesday, November 3rd, I'm
- 0:03Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The Oregon game in four days.
- 0:05Speaker 1: The game gets Michigan in 25 days. Today's episode presented
- 0:08Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, proudly offering nationally
- 0:10Speaker 1: acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment,
- 0:14Speaker 1: and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just
- 0:17Speaker 1: go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu.
- 0:20Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. This weekend's Oregon game kicking
- 0:23Speaker 1: off at 3.30 on CBS. Why do I mention that? Well,
- 0:27Speaker 1: because we just found out when the last remaining Ohio
- 0:29Speaker 1: State home game on the schedule will be kicking off.
- 0:32Speaker 1: And to the surprise of absolutely no one in the
- 0:35Speaker 1: Ohio State fan base, Ohio State Northwestern will be kicking
- 0:38Speaker 1: off at noon. We already knew the Ohio State Michigan
- 0:40Speaker 1: game was kicking off at noon. So how many home
- 0:43Speaker 1: games will the Buckeyes have for primetime kickoffs this year? Mr. Blutarski, 0.0.
- 0:50Speaker 1: How is that going over? Well, let's bring in Tony
- 0:52Speaker 1: Gerderman of Buckeye Insiders to talk about that. Tony, you know,
- 0:57Speaker 1: for media folks, noon kickoffs are fine. We can get home,
- 1:00Speaker 1: watch the primetime games, no problem. For Ohio State fans,
- 1:04Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like exactly what they were looking for.
- 1:06Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's not even to mention for Ohio State recruiting,
- 1:09Speaker 2: it's not what they're looking for either. But yeah, I mean.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Night games used to be a very rare thing because
- 1:18Speaker 2: you'd have to bring in the lights. You'd have to
- 1:20Speaker 2: bring in the must-go lights back when we were in
- 1:23Speaker 2: college and you'd have the trucks come in and bring
- 1:26Speaker 2: them in because there were no permanent lights. And it
- 1:28Speaker 2: was a special thing to be on at night on
- 1:32Speaker 2: ESPN or ABC or whatever. And now it's like, it's
- 1:36Speaker 2: a special thing to be able to be bypassed by
- 1:39Speaker 2: two other networks so that you can be on NBC
- 1:41Speaker 2: or FS1 at night And for Ohio State, getting bypassed
- 1:46Speaker 2: is just not something TV is going to do, and Fox,
- 1:50Speaker 2: when they have the opportunity, is seemingly not going to do.
- 1:54Speaker 2: And so now this will be the fourth of at
- 1:58Speaker 2: least five noon games for Ohio State on Fox, and
- 2:01Speaker 2: that's not counting the Ball State 12.30 p.m. on Big
- 2:04Speaker 2: Ten Network, because that's a completely different time slot. And yeah,
- 2:08Speaker 2: it's unfortunate because... you're, you look at the schedule and
- 2:12Speaker 2: you're thinking, well, you know, I guess as times continue
- 2:14Speaker 2: to build, like, well, I guess maybe this would be
- 2:16Speaker 2: the most likely night game being Northwestern. And that's what
- 2:19Speaker 2: we both said, because you look at the others and
- 2:21Speaker 2: you know, especially it was either like Maryland or Northwestern.
- 2:26Speaker 2: And I think, I don't think that's anything any Ohio
- 2:28Speaker 2: state fans want to hear at the start of the season.
- 2:31Speaker 2: And yet, you know, still you'd like to have one,
- 2:33Speaker 2: like we've got a group chat going on and somebody mentioned, well, no,
- 2:37Speaker 2: you know, there's a UCLA night game against a, against
- 2:40Speaker 2: the bad UCLA team a year ago. And people were
- 2:42Speaker 2: happy with that because you just, you know, it's fun
- 2:45Speaker 2: being at Ohio stadium at night and you don't get
- 2:47Speaker 2: to do it enough. And, you know, this weekend they'll
- 2:50Speaker 2: be there at night, but they won't get to enjoy
- 2:54Speaker 2: preparing for the team at night.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Yeah. It's a three 30 kickoff this weekend, which feels like,
- 3:00Speaker 1: I mean, we'll, we'll get out of there and it'll
- 3:02Speaker 1: be dark and it'll feel like, Oh boy. I mean,
- 3:05Speaker 1: you kind of get half a night game this week, but,
- 3:08Speaker 1: You get the sense. Ohio State, I don't think they've
- 3:10Speaker 1: officially announced this, but there is plenty of circumstantial evidence
- 3:14Speaker 1: that they're planning to wear the black uniforms for the
- 3:16Speaker 1: Northwestern game, which certainly when we saw that, suggested that
- 3:21Speaker 1: they would be planning on a primetime kickoff for that one.
- 3:23Speaker 1: So you wonder if the deal may be changed there,
- 3:27Speaker 1: because otherwise that would kind of be a weird game
- 3:28Speaker 1: to wear your special uniforms for. But yeah, it is
- 3:32Speaker 1: a little weird for Ohio State to, like if it's
- 3:35Speaker 1: the biggest game of the week, And Fox gets it like, yeah,
- 3:38Speaker 1: we get it. We understand like that's kind of part
- 3:41Speaker 1: of the deal right now. But when you think, you know,
- 3:45Speaker 1: Kent State is the big noon game and Gus Johnson
- 3:47Speaker 1: is there yawning through like an incredibly disinterested broadcast. You know,
- 3:53Speaker 1: they have had, you know, the Ohio University game last year.
- 3:56Speaker 1: That was a primetime game. And was that the most
- 3:59Speaker 1: compelling game of the season? No, but to your point,
- 4:01Speaker 1: it was kind of, you know, it was probably fun
- 4:03Speaker 1: for fans to be there. you know, my wife and
- 4:05Speaker 1: kids went to that game and it was like, Oh,
- 4:06Speaker 1: it was fun to go to a night game. It was,
- 4:07Speaker 1: it was kind of cool to be there. And it
- 4:10Speaker 1: was this year you got, you know, sorry, sorry for everyone.
- 4:14Speaker 1: The rest of the big 10 sucks. So it's going
- 4:17Speaker 1: to be, it's going to be a new big noon
- 4:19Speaker 1: kickoff or Kent state. And that's kind of part of
- 4:23Speaker 1: the problem right now where, you know, part of the
- 4:25Speaker 1: problem is Ohio state fans watch too many Ohio state
- 4:28Speaker 1: football games. So Fox knows they're going to get a
- 4:30Speaker 1: lot of eyeballs. So you, yes, you, you are part
- 4:33Speaker 1: of the problem. uh, for supporting your team, which I
- 4:35Speaker 1: guess isn't really much of a problem, but that's, that's
- 4:38Speaker 1: certainly a factor that plays into this, but man, you wonder,
- 4:42Speaker 1: as you said, this is all, this is not just
- 4:44Speaker 1: annoying to Ohio state fans. I think Ohio state, when
- 4:47Speaker 1: you're trying to bring in recruits from, from other, you know,
- 4:50Speaker 1: from West, the West coast or something like that, and
- 4:52Speaker 1: they're playing a high school football game on a Friday night,
- 4:54Speaker 1: there's no way they can get to a noon game
- 4:56Speaker 1: on the East coast. I mean, it really is almost
- 4:57Speaker 1: logistically impossible. And it's hard for guys, you know, even
- 5:01Speaker 1: people from the South to get up to Columbus and
- 5:02Speaker 1: get there in time for a noon game. And this
- 5:05Speaker 1: is a lot of games during the course of the
- 5:06Speaker 1: season where that's true. And so then the question becomes, OK,
- 5:11Speaker 1: so what can Ohio State do about it? And, you know,
- 5:14Speaker 1: you anytime anyone's mad about anything, it's just, well, leave, leave.
- 5:17Speaker 1: You know, Michigan was going to leave. Michigan was going
- 5:20Speaker 1: to leave the Big Ten and go to the SEC
- 5:22Speaker 1: because Jim Harbaugh got caught cheating and the Big Ten
- 5:24Speaker 1: had the temerity to do something about it. Like, well,
- 5:26Speaker 1: and surprise, Michigan has not left the Big Ten for
- 5:29Speaker 1: the SEC. So I know that's everyone's immediate reaction is
- 5:32Speaker 1: leave the Big Ten and just go somewhere else. And
- 5:36Speaker 1: I mean, I guess there is a way that is
- 5:39Speaker 1: sort of theoretically possible. But I think the first thing
- 5:43Speaker 1: that I would look at from Ohio State's perspective is
- 5:45Speaker 1: when the next Big Ten rights are up, and I
- 5:47Speaker 1: believe it's after the 2030 season is when the Big
- 5:50Speaker 1: Ten TV contract is up. I think you got one
- 5:53Speaker 1: of two options, Tony. One is either you have some
- 5:57Speaker 1: kind of a contractual limit on a team can only
- 6:00Speaker 1: play so many home noon kickoffs by contract, or number two,
- 6:07Speaker 1: you can continue to schedule things the way they are,
- 6:10Speaker 1: But if Ohio State and Michigan or Oregon or whoever
- 6:14Speaker 1: else you want to give special treatment to, if they're
- 6:17Speaker 1: going to sort of carry the banner for the league
- 6:19Speaker 1: and sort of bring everyone value, that's fine. But Purdue
- 6:22Speaker 1: and Northwestern, you don't get as much money as Ohio
- 6:25Speaker 1: State does.
- 6:26Speaker 2: Yeah, and we saw Texas and Oklahoma do this in
- 6:29Speaker 2: the Big 12, and people didn't like it. The money
- 6:34Speaker 2: now at this point and the things you're asking of
- 6:38Speaker 2: Ohio State and Purdue, I'd say others like it, but
- 6:40Speaker 2: really it's mostly just Ohio State at this point in
- 6:42Speaker 2: the Big Ten. There should be some sort of a perk,
- 6:45Speaker 2: and yes, if you're going to be as reliant upon them,
- 6:49Speaker 2: then they should be a little bit rewarded more for it. Now,
- 6:52Speaker 2: the Big Ten has always been one for all and
- 6:55Speaker 2: all for one, and they would never do this. This
- 6:58Speaker 2: is no longer Jim Delaney's Big Ten. I'm not sure
- 7:01Speaker 2: if anybody's aware of that. It's been a while since
- 7:03Speaker 2: it has been, and thankfully it's not Kevin Warren's Big
- 7:07Speaker 2: Ten either. And not that Tony Petitti has a bunch
- 7:10Speaker 2: of fans right now either. Maybe we need Jim Delaney's
- 7:13Speaker 2: Big Ten now that I talk it out loud. But
- 7:17Speaker 2: if Ohio State is going to carry the load, then
- 7:19Speaker 2: they should get a different share than everybody else that isn't. And,
- 7:24Speaker 2: you know, I'm thinking, you know, there's a bowl revenue,
- 7:28Speaker 2: like bowl share, like you get whatever for this. Or
- 7:31Speaker 2: when teams would get– the conference would get so much
- 7:33Speaker 2: for making the BCS and like you make BCS since
- 7:37Speaker 2: another 18 million or whatever. I'm saying, yeah, everybody gets
- 7:40Speaker 2: the revenue. Ohio state gets more, but if you're on
- 7:43Speaker 2: big 10, if you're on big noon, by the end,
- 7:46Speaker 2: you know, you get whatever, 5 million, you know, for it.
- 7:50Speaker 2: And by the, at the end of the season, you
- 7:52Speaker 2: tallied up and there's an extra 25 million for you
- 7:54Speaker 2: or something like that. Because this is, it's, it's detrimental
- 8:01Speaker 2: to recruiting in the, the actual on, on-field game day recruiting,
- 8:07Speaker 2: which Ohio State needs some sort of compensation for, but also, like, yes,
- 8:12Speaker 2: there's a ton of eyes on them, and Fox does
- 8:14Speaker 2: good in the noon, you know, 12 p.m. slot. I wonder, Tom,
- 8:18Speaker 2: how many 16-year-olds are watching, I don't know, you know,
- 8:23Speaker 2: in terms of high school recruits are watching 12 p.m., noon,
- 8:28Speaker 2: Big Ten football. I don't know, and so, like, I'm
- 8:33Speaker 2: with you. I think there's going to be some uneven
- 8:36Speaker 2: revenue share in this. But also, I think beyond that,
- 8:40Speaker 2: if you're on Fox, you should be compensated for that differently.
- 8:45Speaker 2: And Fox is like, well, we're compensating the conference. Then
- 8:47Speaker 2: the conference needs to compensate the programs differently, however that is.
- 8:53Speaker 1: Well, and the other piece of this is Fox moved
- 8:57Speaker 1: the big, big noon kickoff model because it was kind
- 9:00Speaker 1: of like you were going, it's the old Jefferson pilot
- 9:03Speaker 1: games basically, where it was, you know, three and eight
- 9:06Speaker 1: Vanderbilt versus two and nine Kentucky. And that was sort
- 9:10Speaker 1: of what was getting thrown up against you. And that
- 9:12Speaker 1: was like, I say noon Big Ten kickoff, and 20
- 9:15Speaker 1: years ago, you're hearing Pam Ward's voice in your head,
- 9:18Speaker 1: and she's calling Northwestern and Michigan State at Ryan Field
- 9:22Speaker 1: literally every week. It's like, I don't know how these
- 9:24Speaker 1: teams are playing the noon ESPN2 game every week, but
- 9:27Speaker 1: every week, Pam Ward is calling 2005 Michigan State versus Northwestern.
- 9:33Speaker 1: And that's not the case anymore. ESPN has looked at
- 9:36Speaker 1: Fox and the numbers that they're doing for the noon
- 9:38Speaker 1: games and going, oh, well, people do watch at noon.
- 9:40Speaker 1: So now all of a sudden the noon window is
- 9:43Speaker 1: not quite the goldmine than it was a few years ago.
- 9:45Speaker 1: So by the time 2030 rolls around, there's no guarantee
- 9:49Speaker 1: that Fox will be... Fox and the Big Ten are
- 9:51Speaker 1: pretty closely tied together right now because Fox owns half
- 9:54Speaker 1: of the Big Ten network. So I don't think you're
- 9:57Speaker 1: going to be able to just you know, launch Fox
- 9:59Speaker 1: into the... shove Fox into the escape pod and jettison
- 10:02Speaker 1: them off into space. I think you're kind of... they're
- 10:04Speaker 1: kind of tethered together right now. But there's no guarantee
- 10:07Speaker 1: that that noon slot will be Fox's spot forever. They
- 10:11Speaker 1: could theoretically move to another time slot with their first
- 10:15Speaker 1: available game. So that's sort of one question. The other
- 10:18Speaker 1: piece of this is... This is not me saying this
- 10:22Speaker 1: is two years from now what's going to happen or
- 10:24Speaker 1: anything like this. But just a couple weeks ago, the
- 10:27Speaker 1: president of the University of Miami came out and talked
- 10:29Speaker 1: about the fact that they were thinking maybe they're just
- 10:32Speaker 1: going to go independent if they don't like the deal
- 10:34Speaker 1: they're getting from the ACC. That's something that could theoretically
- 10:38Speaker 1: happen at some point because you've got the Save College
- 10:41Speaker 1: Sports Act right now that is– we'll see whether that
- 10:45Speaker 1: gets through Congress or not. But if it does, there's
- 10:48Speaker 1: all sorts of restrictions on being able to jump from
- 10:51Speaker 1: one power conference to another power conference. There's nothing that
- 10:53Speaker 1: says you can't leave a power conference and go be
- 10:56Speaker 1: an independent. So if Florida State and Clemson and Miami
- 11:01Speaker 1: and North Carolina, for example, decide, well, we don't want
- 11:04Speaker 1: to split money with the rest of the ACC anymore,
- 11:07Speaker 1: they can go independent. I mean, the president of Miami
- 11:10Speaker 1: said that into a microphone. So this is not like
- 11:12Speaker 1: a big conspiracy theory. This is something they're actively talking
- 11:15Speaker 1: about right now. Michigan and Ohio State and Alabama and
- 11:19Speaker 1: Georgia at some point, probably not 2030, but at some point,
- 11:24Speaker 1: whenever the TV deals are up next, decide, what if
- 11:28Speaker 1: we didn't have to give money to Vanderbilt and Northwestern
- 11:30Speaker 1: and Kentucky and Purdue? You could just go and go
- 11:35Speaker 1: be independent, cut your own TV deal. And then you
- 11:40Speaker 1: can be independent and just play each other every year.
- 11:42Speaker 1: And it's basically like a conference, except it's just all
- 11:44Speaker 1: the good teams. So you know, there's a million different
- 11:47Speaker 1: ways this could all play out. And, you know, everyone
- 11:50Speaker 1: says Super League and assumes it's going to be a conference.
- 11:53Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily mean that's how it's going to be.
- 11:55Speaker 1: And again, this is not like I'm expecting this to
- 11:58Speaker 1: happen before the 2029 season, but that's at some point
- 12:02Speaker 1: in the future. Don't be shocked if that's the direction
- 12:05Speaker 1: the sport takes. Yeah.
- 12:07Speaker 2: If you've got 24 independents, I wonder if they're going
- 12:10Speaker 2: to be talking to each other about scheduling and things
- 12:13Speaker 2: like that. Real quick, back to the big noon stuff.
- 12:16Speaker 2: So this week, the big noon kickoff, the big noon
- 12:18Speaker 2: game is UCLA, number five UCLA at Minnesota. Pretty interesting.
- 12:24Speaker 2: ABC has number seven BYU at number three Utah at
- 12:28Speaker 2: 12 p.m. ESPN, same network, family of network, has number
- 12:33Speaker 2: 10 Texas at number 19 Missouri for 12 p.m. Those
- 12:36Speaker 2: two games are probably going to beat the Fox game perhaps,
- 12:40Speaker 2: or at least the ESPN might come real close. Certainly
- 12:44Speaker 2: you would think maybe BYU, Utah. But together, they're going
- 12:47Speaker 2: to beat that Fox game. Now back to the whole
- 12:51Speaker 2: going independent. Every move that we've seen made over the last,
- 12:57Speaker 2: since the Big Ten Network, every progressive move has been
- 13:02Speaker 2: about more money, more money, more money. And what about
- 13:07Speaker 2: going independent at this time would be about less money
- 13:10Speaker 2: or would mean less money just depends on you know
- 13:14Speaker 2: what the television stuff is out there and also like
- 13:18Speaker 2: what what is the television side of things going to
- 13:23Speaker 2: look like if amazon comes to you and said you
- 13:25Speaker 2: know for 140 million dollars a year why don't you
- 13:29Speaker 2: go independent is anybody saying no to that i mean
- 13:32Speaker 2: amazon that's that's money out of the sock drawer for
- 13:36Speaker 2: them if they really you know think it would drive
- 13:38Speaker 2: now everybody's gonna you know uh ohio state fans are
- 13:41Speaker 2: going to sign up for Prime now, and now we've
- 13:44Speaker 2: got them, you know, free shipping. That's what it's all about.
- 13:46Speaker 2: But we don't know what the TV aspect of this
- 13:50Speaker 2: whole thing is going to look like in a few
- 13:52Speaker 2: years and how much, you know, is the revenue going
- 13:54Speaker 2: to continue to go up? At some point, does it
- 13:56Speaker 2: start going down? Because you can't afford to pay Ohio
- 14:00Speaker 2: State and Pat McAfee.
- 14:02Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you would think that Ohio State would probably
- 14:06Speaker 1: win out there, but If they don't, well, if ESPN
- 14:09Speaker 1: is going to pay Pat McAfee, to your point, what's
- 14:11Speaker 1: the most valuable, single most valuable regular season college football
- 14:15Speaker 1: game on the calendar every year? Tony, go ahead and
- 14:19Speaker 1: ring in and give the answer to me in the
- 14:21Speaker 1: form of a question.
- 14:22Speaker 2: Tom, what is the game, Ohio State and Michigan?
- 14:26Speaker 1: Well, Tony, it's a football game that's played on the
- 14:27Speaker 1: Saturday after Thanksgiving, but that's not important right now. What
- 14:30Speaker 1: is important is if you're Amazon... Who's in the market
- 14:34Speaker 1: to advertise to people right around, oh, say the day
- 14:38Speaker 1: after Black Friday and offer free shipping and that type
- 14:41Speaker 1: of thing? Hmm, interesting, interesting. So again, not reporting, just
- 14:47Speaker 1: sort of throwing some stuff out there that this is
- 14:50Speaker 1: the kind of thing that when you're looking at what
- 14:52Speaker 1: are things gonna look at, whether it's five years or
- 14:54Speaker 1: 10 years or 15 years into the future, this is
- 14:57Speaker 1: the kind of stuff that is gonna drive that decision.
- 14:59Speaker 1: Because if you're Ohio State and Michigan, And Amazon's willing
- 15:02Speaker 1: to say, like, I mean, I don't know what Fox
- 15:06Speaker 1: makes on the Ohio State-Michigan game every year, but I
- 15:09Speaker 1: would guess it's probably in terms of gross revenue, probably
- 15:14Speaker 1: at least what they're paying Ohio State and Michigan, probably
- 15:17Speaker 1: in terms of like an entire TV deal. So if
- 15:20Speaker 1: you don't have to divide that pie 18 ways, well,
- 15:23Speaker 1: there's a little more pie for you, which is who
- 15:25Speaker 1: isn't looking for a little more pie every Thanksgiving weekend?
- 15:28Speaker 1: So there you go. why the Ohio state noon kickoff
- 15:32Speaker 1: against Northwestern might be a little bit of an indication
- 15:35Speaker 1: of where things might be headed in five to 10
- 15:37Speaker 1: years of college football, maybe 15. We'll see again, not reporting,
- 15:41Speaker 1: just sort of mentioning some things that a thing that
- 15:45Speaker 1: the university of Miami president said a couple of weeks
- 15:47Speaker 1: ago and some other stuff that might just be a
- 15:49Speaker 1: little bit of a tip off of what's to come.
- 15:50Speaker 1: So there you go. We wanted to just sort of
- 15:53Speaker 1: run that all past you, not saying Ohio state needs
- 15:55Speaker 1: to throw a fit and leave the big 10 tomorrow.
- 15:57Speaker 1: That's not what we're saying. We're just saying, Hey, keep
- 15:59Speaker 1: an eye on the future. So, Another place you want
- 16:01Speaker 1: to keep an eye on is Jeff Ruby's of Columbus.
- 16:04Speaker 1: That is the award-winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named
- 16:06Speaker 1: one of the top 50 steakhouses in America by Food Network.
- 16:09Speaker 1: Just go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the
- 16:11Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. That will do it
- 16:14Speaker 1: for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
- 16:15Speaker 1: a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.