I know I posted this a few weeks back, but I wanted to say it again and add some things before the Ohio State – Penn State showdown.

I understand this is an irrational take with no statistical support, but Big Noon is the worst. I don’t care that FOX and Joel Klatt keep telling us it’s the highest rated game each week. It’s poisoning Big Ten Football. Here’s why…

First, no one… and I mean no one… plans to have the best part of their day happen at noon. Sure, anyone under the age of nine may have their birthday party at that time, and that would certainly be the highlight of their day, but nine year olds aren’t driving the billion-dollar college football machine. Adults do. When adults make plans with friends, those plans are at night. No one says, “let’s go out for a nice Saturday lunch” unless it’s with his or her grandparents. Want to go to a movie or host a party? That’s at night, too. Any fun wedding is at night (sorry). I know what you’re thinking… Did you just prove the rationale of FOX executives to produce Big Noon? I sure did. However, they’re missing something.

There’s this thing that exists but doesn’t officially exist. It’s called the national conscious, where you can text anyone, anywhere at a certain moment of the Saturday night game and know, some way, some how the game is in their sphere. When Georgia stormed back against Alabama, I was watching on my phone next to a pool. I was texting a friend at a wedding. I was texting another friend at ANOTHER college football game. One friend had abandoned a playoff baseball game and switched over. I went back and counted, there were double digit text threads (12) with individuals paying attention to that game. When was the last time a Big Noon game had all your friends buzzing? When was the last time Twitter went nuclear at 2PM ET? I can’t think of one. Even Ohio State-Michigan doesn’t move the needle like a chaotic 2nd half on ESPN/ABC Saturday night. Which leads to my next point…

Gus Johnson is not Chris Fowler. FOX can claim they have the most watched game every week. The numbers say they’re not lying. However, FOX does not have the BIGGEST game every week, because if it’s not Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit on the call, it’s not the biggest game. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Gus Johnson was great for March Madness but he’s too much for college football. Too much. I didn’t need to hear him say “Maserati Marv” nine times in the first quarter last year against Penn State. The game is always the star. Johnson tries to be and it’s distracting and quite frankly, annoying.

I know dollars rule all, and I get why the Big Ten took the biggest TV deal they could find. Who could blame them? Unfortunately, the NHL also made this mistake about 20 years ago. They left ESPN for NBC and hockey fell off a cliff in the national conscious. I hate ESPN’s programming. I really do. But when it comes to actual live contests, no one does it better.

Go ahead and think about it; when you want to watch a live college football game on Saturday, what is the very first channel you check? It’s ESPN. Always. NBC does a fine job with their football productions, but when FOX is hijacking the best Big Ten matchup every week, that Saturday night prime time Big Ten game will never match the aura of the ESPN Saturday night contest because ESPN can literally pick from almost any college football game outside of the Big Ten. Thus, every Saturday, little by little, for the next five to seven years the Big Ten will slowly drain from the national scene because their biggest and brightest matchups will be featured while little Timmy’s birthday party is happening in the backyard.

I listen to Joel Klatt’s podcast. How often has he opened his Monday pod by recapping the Big Noon game? Once? Even his own pod team knows Big Noon games fall flat on a national level. The Super Bowl is played in prime time for a reason.

In a dream world, we boycott Big Noon’s set Saturday morning. Not a soul should be there. Don’t leave them any scenario where they can manipulate camera angles to show a crowd. Furthermore, at 12:12, all 110,000 of us inside Beaver Stadium should serenade FOX with a Big Noon Sucks chant for a solid 30 seconds or so. They’ve hijacked what was ours. Ohio State is our white out in prime time. The least we can do is embarrass them in front of a national audience. 12:12PM ET should be right in the middle of the first drive so a commercial break shouldn’t be an issue.

The bottom line is this: FOX will continue to flash rating numbers in order to drive advertising dollars all while the SEC laps the Big Ten in popularity and relevance. Bright lights, ESPN, and social media melting down in the midst of big game chaos matters to teenagers deciding where to play college football. No kid… not one single one… grows up thinking, My dream is to play on Big Noon one day.

No, they want to play on ESPN, under the lights, with Fowler and Herbstreit on the call and the whole nation knowing the biggest game of the week is happening right now, and at a moments notice, they may need to find a screen.