Who won Week 9 in college football?
Big 12 ball in the Big 10, Kentucky's whiff against the Vols, and a new hope at Texas A&M.
I’ll start our weekend wrap-up with a mea culpa.
To me it looked poor on Penn State’s part to hold a white-out game, where they always draw a massive home field advantage, against Minnesota rather than the dreaded Buckeyes of Ohio State. However, they understandably like to use the white-out for night games and it was a FOX Sports decision to feature Ohio State vs Penn State at noon to maximize viewership amidst the World Series, which they also own the rights to broadcast.
Many will look with disdain on this T.V. decision by Fox but, this is the business. We want the people who pay the bills for college football to make poor business decisions? Perhaps the better criticism is to pivot the relatively modern understanding of the night game as the pinnacle of the college football experience. Hold your white-out game at noon, why not? Or do it against Minnesota to maximize that experience while knowing that Ohio State visiting is going to draw in a ton of interest regardless of when it takes place.
At any rate, kudos to James Franklin and Penn State for having some fight for the Buckeyes. As is often the case, they came up short, but it was a solid showing. We’ll look at some of the interesting dynamics of that game and the other contests over the weekend after the paywall break.
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