The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A new proposed bill is trying to get Ohio State football games to start later.
Ohio state Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, introduced a bill last week that would require Ohio State football games to kick off at 3:30 p.m. or later if the Buckeyes are playing a top-10 ranked team in the Associated Press poll.
“A few weeks ago, I said it would be a crime for FOX to put Ohio State vs Texas at noon,” Fischer said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Promises made, promises kept!”
The Ohio State Buckeyes kick off their season against the Texas Longhorns in Columbus on Aug. 30. The time of the game has not been released, but it will air on Fox and is expected to be a noon game.
The game will be a rematch of the Cotton Bowl from earlier this year, which the Buckeyes won 28-14 — eventually going on to win the National Championship by defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The Ohio Attorney General would slap a $10 million fine against either the host team’s athletic conference or the television network broadcasting if a game was played starting at noon — “whichever party scheduled the earlier start time,” according to the bill.
Ohio State has played a lot of noon games in recent years on Fox Big Noon Kickoff. The Buckeyes played five Big Noon Kickoff games during their last season. Former Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer joined the Fox Big Noon Kickoff in 2019 for two seasons and returned in 2022 after coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars for a year.
The Ohio State-Michigan game, which is traditionally played at noon, would be an exception, according to the bill.
Ohio Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, is also trying to use legislation to change how Buckeye fans can watch the games. Ohio Senate Bill 94 would ban state universities from entering into or renewing contracts to broadcast a game exclusively on a streaming service.
Ohio State has exclusively streamed some of their football games in recent years on the streaming service Peacock.
