The FOX Big Noon Kickoff show was supposed to be broadcasting from Champaign for the Illinois-Penn State football game. At the last minute, they reversed course and are sticking with Colorado, where they were last week. According to this piece from The Champaign Room, the appearance in Champaign was decided back in May. It’s surely a reaction to our loss at Kansas, and the immense amount of attention Colorado is getting at the moment.
I won’t recap the whole Champaign Room article. The author does a great job of making his point, and you should go read it. But this pretty much sums it up:
FOX basically flipped the bird to both teams, players, coaches, fans, the Big Ten, and the athletic departments. Preparations had been made months in advance. People planned out trips to Champaign, booking flights, buying tickets, parking passes, etc. All to just have a huge component of this week’s game taken away just a week ahead after three months of hype and buildup. It’s not fair, and it’s not ethical. Penn State should also be extremely angry; all it did was be ranked top-10 preseason then blow out both its opponents. They are far better than Colorado, and Illinois is far better than Colorado State, and it makes more sense for the Big Ten game to be close since PSU is playing at Champaign.