Cougs Daily

BYU Could be a Candidate to Host Big Noon Kickoff for Arizona Game

Casey Lundquist

Fox Big Noon broadcast on the field before kickoff between Michigan and Texas at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 7, 2024.
Fox Big Noon broadcast on the field before kickoff between Michigan and Texas at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, September 7, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
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After the bye week, no. 17 BYU will host Arizona in a battle of two Big 12 title contenders. The Big 12 announced on Monday that BYU-Arizona will get the Fox afternoon TV slot. The Cougars and the Wildcats will be one of the best, if not the best, matchups in the conference that weekend and the television window reflects that. Since BYU-Arizona will be broadcast on FOX, it is a candidate to host the FOX BIG NOON KICKOFF show.

BIG NOON KICKOFF, the FOX equivalent of ESPN's College GameDay, travels to the location of one of its FOX matchups every week. FOX will broadcast three games on October 12th, therefore there are three candidates to host the show:

  1. Washington at Iowa OR Wisconsin at Rutgers (FOX will choose after week six)
  2. Arizona at BYU
  3. Iowa State at West Virginia

On most weeks, the BIG NOON KICKOFF show will travel to the location of the 10 AM Mountain Time game. In this scenario, that would be the Big Ten game. On occasion, the show will travel to the site of either the afternoon or the evening game. Last week, for example, BIG NOON was onsite for Colorado at UCF. That game was broadcast in the afternoon window.

FOX is paying A LOT of money to broadcast Big Ten games, so the Big Ten is always the odds-on favorite to host BIG NOON KICKOFF that day. However, the Big Ten matchups that morning aren't fantastic. Washington is 3-2 and Iowa is 3-1, both teams are unranked. Wisconsin is 2-2 and Rutgers is 4-0. Regardless of the matchup, the Big Ten game will feature at least one team with two losses and potentially more. That gives BYU-Arizona a shot.

It's very unlikely that FOX will travel to Morgantown for Iowa State at West Virginia. BIG NOON KICKOFF was in Morgantown in week one for Penn State at West Virginia.

Lastly, BYU-Arizona could be the lone ranked matchup of the three games. BYU will be ranked in the top 20. The Cougars are ranked no. 17 in the latest AP poll and won't move around much after a bye week this week. Arizona was just outside the top 25 at no. 26. If Arizona beats Texas Tech this weekend, the Wildcats will likely be ranked in the top-25. In that scenario, BYU-Arizona would be a battle of two unbeaten teams in a game with potential conference title implications.

BIG NOON KICKOFF typically announces the location of the show on Sunday, six days before the game.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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