| Fox College Football | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | Big Noon Saturday (2019–present) Fox College Football Friday (2024–present) Fox CFB College Football on Fox CFB on Fox BCS on Fox (2007–2010) |
| Genre | College football game telecasts |
| Presented by | Gus Johnson Joel Klatt Jenny Taft Jason Benetti Robert Griffin III Alexa Landestoy Tim Brando Devin Gardner Josh Sims Connor Onion Mark Helfrich Mike Pereira Dean Blandino Rob Stone Brady Quinn Matt Leinart Urban Meyer Mark Ingram II Charles Woodson Dave Portnoy Chris Fallica Bruce Feldman Mike Hill Chris Petersen (see section) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 27 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various NCAA stadiums (Game telecasts, halftime show and road shows) Fox Network Center Los Angeles, California (Studio segments, pregame and postgame shows) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends |
| Production company | Fox Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox (1999–present) Fox Sports Networks (1999–2019) Fox College Sports (2006–2019) FS1 (2013–present) FS2 (2013–present) FX (2011–2012) |
| Release | January 1, 1999 (1999-01-01) – present |
| Related | |
| Big Noon Saturday Big Noon Kickoff | |
Fox College Football is the branding used for broadcasts ofNCAA Division I FBScollege football games produced byFox Sports, and broadcast primarily byFox,FS1, andFS2.
Initial college football broadcasts on the Fox network were limited to selectedbowl games, beginning with theCotton Bowl Classic from 1999 to 2014. From 2007 to 2010, Fox broadcast theBowl Championship Series (excluding games played at theRose Bowl stadium, whose rights were held byABC under a separate agreement), branded as theBCS on Fox.
In 2012, Fox began to air a regular schedule of Saturday college football games during the regular season. Fox primarily airs coverage of theBig Ten andBig 12 and holds alternating rights to theBig Ten championship game. Since 2020, Fox has aired games from theMountain West Conference (includingBoise State home games, and theMountain West championship game). Fox also holds rights to theHoliday Bowl. As of the 2024 season, coverage on the main Fox network currently consists of four regular weekly windows, including a Fridayprime time game, a Saturday afternoon doubleheader (with the early game—branded asBig Noon Saturday—considered Fox's flagship game of the week), on most weeks a Saturday prime time game and on select weeks a Saturday late night game.
In order to better compete with national networks likeESPN, since its inception theFox Sports Networks (FSN) has carried college football games from thethen Pac-10 conference andBig 12 conference. These telecasts were distributed to individual Fox Sports Networks and other affiliates. In 2011 FSN added a package ofConference USA football games.[1] Many of these games were aired exclusively, aired as a simulcast, or aired on tape delay onFox College Sports.
Pac-12 games moved from FSN to Fox,FX and eventuallyFS1 in 2012.[2] The C-USA left Fox Sports entirely in 2016.[3] FSN affiliates continued to largely hold the third-tier rights to many Big 12 teams until 2020, whenESPN+ acquired the tier 3 media rights to all but two of the conference's members (with the only holdouts being theOklahoma Sooners, who maintained their contract withFox Sports Oklahoma, and theTexas Longhorns, who have a long-term deal with ESPN andIMG College to operate itsLonghorn Network).[4][5]
After the sale of FSN toSinclair Broadcast Group as part of Disney's acquisition of21st Century Fox, the networks sub-licensed a package ofConference USA games from new sister networkStadium.[6] TheAtlantic Coast Conference'ssyndication package for regional sports networks—which was produced byRaycom Sports—continued to primarily be carried by the networks (nowBally Sports) until 2023, when Bally dropped them amid itsparent company's bankruptcy,[7] and Raycom Sports sold the rights toThe CW.[8][9]
Fox acquired its first college football telecast in 1998, when it obtained the broadcast rights to the annualCotton Bowl Classic held each January on (eventually, the day after)New Year's Day; thefirst game to be shown on the network as part of the deal was held on January 1, 1999. Fox renewed its contract to carry the game in 2010, in a four-year agreement that ran through the 2013 NCAA college football season.
Fox lost the rights to the Cotton Bowl toESPN for the 2015 edition, as ESPN holds the television contract to all six bowl games that encompass theCollege Football Playoff system under a twelve-year deal worth over$7.3 billion. The Cotton Bowl was the only game among the six that was not already broadcast by ESPN.[10][11]
From the2006 through the2009 seasons, Fox held the broadcast rights to most of the games comprising theBowl Championship Series (BCS) – including theSugar Bowl, theFiesta Bowl, theOrange Bowl, and the newly-establishedBCS Championship Game. Fox paid close to $20 million per game for the rights to televise the BCS games.[12] Fox's contract with the BCS excluded any event in the series that was held at theRose Bowl stadium, such as theRose Bowl Game and the2010 BCS National Championship Game, asABC already had a separate arrangement with thePasadena Tournament of Roses Association to serve as the broadcaster for the games.[13] Fox promoted the BCS bowl games with the blanket titleBowl Bash.[14]
ESPN, which is majority owned by ABC's corporate parentThe Walt Disney Company and serves as the producer for all of ABC's sports coverage, would displace Fox outright as the broadcaster of the BCS beginning in the 2010–11 season.[15] This left Fox with only the Cotton Bowl Classic as the sole college football game, to which it held the television rights until the 2013–14 season.
Beginning with the2011 season, sister cable channelFX began airing a "game of the week" on Saturdays featuring matchups from theBig 12,Conference USA, andPac-12.[16] The Fox network also obtained the rights to air the Big Ten Conference's newfootball championship game beginning that season and running through 2016, as part of Fox Sports' partnership with the conference on theBig Ten Network.[17] Fox also acquired bi-yearly rights to the inauguralPac-12 Football Championship Game, alternating with ESPN/ABC.[18]
Beginning with the2012 season, Fox added regular season games on Saturdays to its lineup; it broadcast eight afternoon games and twelve nighttime games throughout the season, with the latter telecasts airing as part of a new strategy by the network to carry more sports programming on Saturday nights during prime time.FS1 replaced FX's coverage upon its launch in August 2013, though some overflow coverage has aired on FX occasionally when warranted; since 2017, overflow coverage has been carried FS2, and before that onFox Business Network, which usually carriespaid programming on Saturday afternoons of little consequence to pre-emption.[19]
Fox's coverage of the2015 season opened with a game on FS1 featuring theMichigan Wolverines at theUtah Utes. As the first game featuring new head coachJim Harbaugh, the season premiere was promoted with a touring "HarBus"—decorated with a sweater and khakis in imitation of Harbaugh's on-field wardrobe—travelling to Salt Lake City for the game, accompanied by a group of "HarBros" dressed like Harbaugh. The tour concluded at Salt Lake City'sGrand America Hotel for game day; the bus itself was barred from entering the University of Utah's campus.[20][21]
On July 12, 2016, theSan Francisco 49ers announced that they had taken over the Foster Farms Bowl (now known as theRedbox Bowl), and had reached a four-year deal to move the game to Fox and Fox Deportes beginning in 2016.[22] It was also reported bySports Business Journal that Fox was pursuing a share of the Big Ten's primary football rights.[23] Fox began streaming select college football games in360-degree video for the 2016 season.[24][25] The following year, FS1 also acquired rights to theHoliday Bowl, ending a long-standing relationship between the game and ESPN.[26]
On July 24, 2017, theBig Ten Conference announced that Fox and ESPN had acquired rights to its games under a six-year deal beginning in the2017 season. The contract also includes an extension of Fox's contract to operate Big Ten Network through 2032.[27] The deal gives Fox the first choice of games on most weeks, including marquee games such as theMichigan/Ohio State game—which had been a fixture of ABC's college football schedule for over a half-decade. The game will remain in its traditional noon slot on the last day of the Big Ten's regular season.[28][29]
Fox promoted its addition of Big Ten football with promotional campaigns focusing on each team; aChildren of the Corn themed commercial focusing on theNebraska Cornhuskers was pulled after complaints by the school.[30]
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Prior to the2019 season, Fox lost its rights to future Big 12 championship games to ESPN as part of an expansion of its rights to the conference. Fox declined to bid on the 2019, 2021, and 2023 games.[31]
In the 2019 season, Fox introduced a new flagship Noon ET window known asBig Noon Saturday. The games are accompanied by a pre-game show,Big Noon Kickoff.[32][33][34] A Fox executive stated that the network's highest-rated games were often those with a Noon kickoff, and that the network also wanted to avoid competition from other highly viewed windows such as theSEC on CBS and ABC'sSaturday Night Football.[35] The new emphasis on early games proved successful: in the first weeks of the 2019 season, Fox had the highest-rated game in the timeslot on multiple occasions. This pattern continued into subsequent seasons, withBig Noon Saturday overtaking theSEC on CBS as having the highest average viewership in the 2021 season, and the Michigan/Ohio State game (which saw Michigan end an eight-game losing streak in the rivalry) being the highest-rated regular-season game of the 2021 season, and most-watched regular-season game since theAlabama–LSU game in 2019.[36][35]
Due to the early kickoff times, the package has faced criticism for having undue impacts on teams not based in theEastern Time Zone (ET), including from University of Oklahoma Athletics DirectorJoe Castiglione (who felt that a Noon ET kickoff for a 2021 game against Nebraska, marking the 50th anniversary of their 1971"Game of the Century", would diminish its profile), and Stanford head coachDavid Shaw (who, in particular, criticized Fox Sports for scheduling noon kickoffs involving visiting Pac-12 teams).[37][38] In August 2021, University of Oklahoma president Joe Harroz cited criticism ofBig Noon Saturday when discussing the Sooners' proposed move to theSEC, arguing that the Big 12 conference would be "last in line" in negotiating new media deals, and that "our fans talk about that. It also matters to student-athletes. When those who go before you, in terms of negotiations for 2025 and beyond, if those premiere slots are already taken up, it impacts things in a material way. It translates into disadvantages in recruiting the top talent, disadvantages for our student-athletes and a detriment to the fan experience."[39]
On January 9, 2020, theMountain West Conference announced that its next top-tier basketball and football contracts would be split betweenCBS Sports and Fox Sports under a six-year deal, with Fox replacing ESPN. Fox holds rights to 23 games per-season, including the conference championship and allBoise State home games (since 2012, as part of concessions to remain in the conference, the Mountain West has allowed Boise State's home games to be sold as a separate package from the remainder of its media rights).CBS Sports Network will remain the main broadcaster for the conference outside of these games.[40][41][42]
In the 2022 season, ESPN sub-licensed one additional Big Ten football game to Fox, as compensation to releaseJoe Buck from his contract with the network to join ESPN andMonday Night Football.[43]
In August 2022, Fox renewed its rights to the Big Ten under a seven-year deal beginning in the 2023 season. Under the new contract, Fox,CBS, andNBC will hold rights to Noon, 3:30 p.m. ET, and prime time games respectively. There will be a larger number of games on the Fox broadcast network, and an option to air "premier" Big Ten games in other timeslots afterOregon,USC,UCLA, andWashington move to the conference in 2024. Fox will air four Big Ten championship games in odd-numbered years over the length of the contract.[44][45] In October 2022, Fox also renewed its rights to the Big 12 with a six-year extension through 2030–31.[46]
As part of the agreements, Fox also gained additional access to place microphones on players and coaches in Big Ten and Big 12 games beginning in the 2023 season. After having previously shared its in-game presentation with theNFL on Fox,Fox College Football also adopted a dedicated graphics package for its broadcasts, although the revamp faced criticism from viewers on social media.[47][48][49]
For the 2024 season, with the departure ofWWE SmackDown toUSA Network, Fox introduced a second weekly primetime game known asFox College Football Friday, beginning September 13; the package draws primarily from the Big Ten and Big 12. One game betweenRutgers atUSC on October 25 was scheduled after Fox's coverage of Game 1 of the2024 World Series, with an 11 p.m. ET (8:00 p.m. PT) kickoff; the start of the game was preempted to FS1 due to Game 1 going to extra innings.[50][51] Ohio State and Michigan'sspring games also aired on Fox, marking the first time a spring game had aired on over-the-air television.[52] In May 2024, it was announced that Fox had acquired two Pac-12 football home games involving the conference's remaining members,Oregon State University andWashington State University. Both games aired on Fox.CW Sports, the sports division ofThe CW, acquired the rest of the games.[53]
| Rank | Date | Matchup | Network | Viewers (millions) | TV Rating | Significance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 25, 2023, 12:00 ET | #2 Ohio State | 24 | #3Michigan | 30 | Fox | 19.07 | 9.0 | The Game |
| 2 | November 26, 2022, 12:00 ET | #3 Michigan | 45 | #2 Ohio State | 23 | 17.14 | 8.1 | ||
| 3 | August 30, 2025, 12:00 ET | #1 Texas | 7 | #3 Ohio State | 14 | 16.62 | TBA | ||
| 4 | November 27, 2021, 12:00 ET | #2 Ohio State | 27 | #5 Michigan | 42 | 15.89 | 8.1 | The Game | |
| 5 | November 24, 2018, 12:00 ET | #4 Michigan | 39 | #10 Ohio State | 62 | 13.20 | 7.5 | ||
| 6 | November 30, 2019, 12:00 ET | #1 Ohio State | 56 | #13 Michigan | 27 | 12.42 | 7.5 | ||
| 7 | November 30, 2024, 12:00 ET | Michigan | 13 | #2 Ohio State | 10 | 12.32 | TBA | ||
| 8 | September 10, 2022, 12:00 ET | #1 Alabama | 20 | Texas | 19 | 10.60 | 5.7 | ||
| 9 | November 25, 2017, 12:00 ET | #9 Ohio State | 31 | Michigan | 20 | 10.51 | 6.1 | The Game | |
| 10 | October 21, 2023, 12:00 ET | #7 Penn State | 12 | #3 Ohio State | 20 | 9.96 | 5.3 | Rivalry | |
| Team | Play-by-play | Color commentator | Sidelines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | Gus Johnson | Joel Klatt | Jenny Taft |
| Secondary | Jason Benetti | Robert Griffin III | Alexa Landestoy |
| Tertiary | Tim Brando | Devin Gardner | Josh Sims |
| Quaternary | Connor Onion | Mark Helfrich | Jen Hale |
Hosts
Analysts
NCAA Insider
Contributors
Reporter
