Penn State students voicing anger at FOX Sports, calling for boycott

When FOX Sports nabbed the Penn State – Ohio State game to be on their BIg Noon Kickoff it seemed like a very calculated move. ESPN College GameDay is coming to Happy Valley for a game between the No. 3 and No. 4 teams in the nation, something that would normally point to a prime-time appearance.

No prime-time. No White Out, and no bright lights of Beaver Stadium on national television.

FOX took their option to nab a BIg Ten game away from ESPN, and now has the biggest matchup of the year kicking off at noon. This didn’t sit well with Penn State fans who have now organized a boycott of FOX Sports, calling the move “unacceptable”.

“If one thing is clear it is this: This game should be a night game,” Ben Rosenbaum wrote in Onward State, a Penn State Student-run site. “Fox has enjoyed taking the fun out of tailgating and the atmosphere Beaver Stadium presents by testing us with several noon games already. And now, on the biggest game of the year, it happens yet again. Unacceptable.

“I am asking you, Penn State students, to please boycott Big Noon Kickoff. Do not show up. Imagine Urban Meyer hyping up the ‘crowd.’ Cue the crickets, folks. Chirp chirp.”

With Both ESPN and FOX on site, and this boycott being called for it will be quite interesting to watch the TV coverage to see if any of the crowd migrates to the Big Noon Kickoff set, which begins airing an hour after College GameDay.

Given what FOX Sports has paid for the rights to certain Big Ten games, it will likely take more than a boycott of a single on-campus pregame show to turn any heads at the network. Penn State students and fans will need to carry this torch a much longer distance and find a way to affect the advertising dollars at stake.