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FOX Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt took to his social media to defend the Big Noon Saturday college football window. College football fans, notably many from Ohio State, have been upset with the number of marquee games which have been in the 12 p.m. ET window. Ohio State will have six straight noon games to end their season, with five of those being chosen by FOX.
Klatt calls the Big Noon games with play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson. He has now been in the role for a decade with the Big Noon window created in 2019. Klatt has discussed the topic on his show, The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast and he made some similar comments in his social posts.
“Lots of talk about Big Noon Saturday…Here are some things I think you should know,” Klatt started out. “Big Noon Saturday has been the most watched CFB window for the last few years…last year our window avg. almost 7m viewers/game – Prior to Big Noon this window in CFB was non-existent.
“Fox Sports saw a clear opportunity to build value into the sport by creating a 3rd window for premium CFB. That clearly worked – The Big 10 entered into partnership with 3 network partners and those partners have exclusivity in their preferred window – Fox at Noon, CBS at 3:30, NBC at 7. When each network gets to select a game for network AIR it must be shown in that networks exclusive window. When we have the privilege to select one of the great matchups of the week we showcase that game in our premium window.”
Klatt then ended his social post writing, “I love this sport and am committed to showcasing the incredible environments, programs, and players that make our sport so incredible. You will find me and the entire hard working Fox Sports Big Noon crew wherever we are sent, celebrating this great sport and its amazing fans.”
FOX Sports won the Week 10 television ratings with the Big Noon broadcast of Ohio State-Penn State averaging 9.9 million viewers. The week before, the Nebraska-Ohio State game won the week with 5.96 million viewers. FOX Sports also won the week in Week 2 when Texas-Michigan reached an average of 9.19 million viewers.
