Once upon a time all Ohio State home football games were afternoon games.
There were no night games, no noon games, no 3:30 p.m. games. Games started at 1:30 p.m.
It was as unchanging as the times for Sunday masses at your favorite parish. The kickoff time was printed
right there on the tickets into the 1980s. In the mid-1980s a disclaimer saying “Time subject to change
without notice” appeared below the kickoff time.
Before the mid-1980s colleges told television networks when games would start. Now those roles have
been reversed.
The beginning of the change for Ohio State came when it played its first night night at Ohio Stadium on
Sept. 14, 1985 against Pittsburgh.
Some Ohio State fans are upset that the Buckeyes are finishing this year’s regular-season schedule with
six consecutive noon starts and played only one home game at night.
The proponents of more night games say OSU should play more of them because they like the atmosphere
of games under the lights and that they could help recruiting.
But that might be a case of be careful what you wish for. Just ask Michigan State fans how they feel about
the Spartans playing seven night games this season — four at home and three more on the road.
Someone did ask them by starting an online poll on X, formerly know as Twitter, which asked which
kickoff time — Noon, 3:30 or night — was the respondent’s favorite kickoff time. The results of that poll,
which got more than 2,000 responses, were interesting.
Fifty-two percent said 3:30 was the best time. Twenty-seven percent said Noon and only 9 percent picked
a night game. The other 12 percent said they didn’t have a favorite time.
While the Noon kickoff time will be routine for No. 2 Ohio State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) in its game against
Northwestern (4-5, 2-4 Big Ten) on Saturday, the location of the game will be unusual.
It will be the first of two games Northwestern will play at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs,
this season while its new stadium farther north in Evanston is being built. The Wildcats also will play
Illinois in Wrigley Field.
The greatest danger the Buckeyes face might be the way the football field is set up in the venerable
stadium, which leaves very little room between the back of one of the end zones and the brick outfield
wall at Wrigley. And there are a few other possibly dangerous places.
Cubs fans like to call their stadium The Friendly Confines. For football, it’s more like The Cramped
Confines. Hopefully both teams will avoid injuries.
Northwestern’s defense gives up only 21.9 points a game. But its offense scores even fewer points, 19.2
per game. Its leading rusher Cam Porter hasn’t gained more than 50 yards in a game since the middle of
September and its starting quarterback Jack Lausch has thrown one touchdown pass in the Wildcats’ last
four games.
It looks like it could be a walk in the (ball)park for the Buckeyes.
The prediction: Ohio State 35, Northwestern 7.