Big Noon Kickoff is an American college football studio show broadcast by Fox, and simulcast on sister network Fox Sports 1 (FS1). Premiering on August 31, 2019, it serves as the pre-game show for Fox College Football, and in particular, Big Noon Saturday—the network's weekly 12:00 p.m ET/9:00 a.m PT kickoff window.
It is hosted by Rob Stone, and features former national champion and 2004 Heisman Trophy winning USC Trojans quarterback Matt Leinart, former national champion and 2009 Heisman Trophy winning Alabama running back Mark Ingram II, former Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Brady Quinn, former Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, and Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy as panelists, with Bruce Feldman acting as Fox's CFB insider, as well as Tom Verducci, who usually does baseball for Fox, and Tom Rinaldi, both working on feature reports. Radio host Clay Travis serves as a contributor, and 1997 Heisman Trophy winner and former Michigan Wolverines cornerback Charles Woodson will also join the show on select weeks, most notably if Michigan is featured.
History
In the 2013 season, Fox aired a college football pre-game show on its newly launched Fox Sports 1 channel, Fox College Saturday. The program was unable to compete with ESPN's popular and established College GameDay, with Fox only being able to sustain an average viewership of 70,000. The show was cancelled after a single season, and its role was supplanted by the Friday-night edition of Fox Sports Live.
Fox introduced the Big Noon Saturday window for its college football coverage in the 2019 season; the network had aired occasional noon kickoffs during the season before (including, after having acquired the Big Ten's primary football rights in 2017, the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry), and they were among Fox's top-viewed games in the 2018 season. Fox has positioned the timeslot as featuring one of its flagship games of the day. Fox made that decision in order to boost their ratings by avoiding competition with CBS that has their featured SEC (until 2023 with the game moving to ABC and CBS replacing it with Big Ten football games in its place from 2024 onward) game of the week in the 3:30 p.m. timeslot, and ABC with their featured game in primetime. Big Noon Kickoff was henceforth introduced as a pre-game show for the new window.
Sports Illustrated described the show as being "built around" Urban Meyer (who retired as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes at the end of the 2018 season, and had previously been an ESPN analyst). Meyer stated that he had prepared for the role by studying clips of Fox's NFL pre-game show Fox NFL Sunday, and Alex Rodriguez (who joined ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball in 2018), as an example of another player-turned-television analyst. Fox executive producer Brad Zager explained that his presence was meant to help provide "intelligent dialogue" to the show.
For the 2020 season, the program was expanded to two hours. On November 4, 2020, for undisclosed reasons citing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Los Angeles County Department of Health Services guidance, Fox announced that the November 7, 2020 edition of Big Noon Kickoff would not feature the program's usual panel, and that the program would be shortened to one hour. The guest panel was led by Fox NFL Kickoff host Charissa Thompson, joined by Fox NFL Sunday analysts Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, and Emmanuel Acho from Fox Sports 1's Speak for Yourself. On November 12, Meyer revealed that he had recently recovered from a COVID-19 infection.
Meyer left after the 2020 season to take the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job, and was replaced by former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops for the 2021 season. Meyer was fired by the Jaguars after a controversial 13-game tenure and returned to the show for the 2022 season replacing Stoops. Bush left after the 2022 season, with 2009 Heisman Trophy winner running back Mark Ingram II joining the cast for the 2023 season.
In the 2025 season, Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy joined Big Noon Kickoff as a regular panelist, and other Barstool Sports personalities began to appear as contributors. Media analysts characterized the hire—which came as part of a larger deal between Fox Sports and Barstool—as being a response to ESPN's addition of Pat McAfee to College GameDay, as both personalities had significant followings among young adults and via digital media.
Reception The Big Lead felt that Big Noon Kickoff showed promise, but that the show's "formal" and "corporate" atmosphere (in comparison to the "casual fun" of College GameDay) led to most of the panelists seeming "stiff" on-air, and exacerbated their relative lack of broadcasting experience. Quinn was considered to be a stand-out among the panelists in its premiere broadcast, considering him the most "comfortable" on-air, and noting that both he and Meyer were well-versed at leveraging their past experience to provide insights.
Viewership During the first episode, the show garnered 838,000 viewers, which amounted to a 0.8 rating. A special two-hour edition of Big Noon Kickoff leading into the Michigan-Ohio State game on November 30, 2019, received a series-high 1.6 overnight rating, beating College GameDay (which drew a 1.54 rating) in its time slot for the first time in the program's history.
Personalities
Current Rob Stone – host (2019–present) Mike Hill – fill-in host (2019–present) Mark Ingram II – analyst (2023–present) Matt Leinart – analyst (2019–present) Brady Quinn – analyst (2019–present) Urban Meyer – analyst (2019–2020; 2022–present) Charles Woodson – analyst (2019–present) Clay Travis – contributor (2019–present) Tom Verducci – contributor (2019–present) Bruce Feldman – insider (2019–present) Tom Rinaldi – reporter (2021–present) Chris Fallica – researcher/contributor (2023–present) Dave Portnoy – analyst (2025–present)
Former Reggie Bush – analyst (2019–2022) Bob Stoops – analyst (2021)
On-site broadcasts Initially, unlike its main competitor College GameDay, Big Noon Kickoff originated from Fox Sports' studio in Los Angeles, and only travelled to game sites for marquee games being televised by a Fox network (including major rivalry games and the Big Ten Championship Game). Fox scheduled four road shows in 2020, but only 3 happened, as their scheduled visit to USC was canceled due to Fox holding their crew out that weekend due to COVID-19 protocols, which Urban Meyer later revealed that he dealt with a COVID infection. The first 6 weeks of the 2021 season featured the crew going on the road, a Big Noon Kickoff first. Beginning in the 2022 season, Big Noon Kickoff moved permanently to on-location broadcasts throughout the season.
With Deion Sanders' debut as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, Fox broadcast Big Noon Kickoff from Colorado's first three games in the 2023 season; its Week 3 edition was broadcast from Boulder, Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Showdown—which ESPN also chose as its site for College GameDay that week—rather than Penn State at Illinois as originally scheduled, marking the first time that Big Noon Kickoff was broadcast from the same site for two consecutive weeks, and the first time that it was broadcast from the site of a game not televised by Fox.
2019 season
DateVisiting teamHome teamLocationCityNotes10 Utah23USC30Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA9:00 p.m. ET kickoffOctober 126 Oklahoma3411 Texas27Cotton Bowl Dallas, TXRed River RivalryOctober 2613 Wisconsin73 Ohio State38Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHNovember 238 Penn State172 Ohio State28Rivalry November 301 Ohio State5613 Michigan27Michigan StadiumAnn Arbor, MI The GameDecember 71 Ohio State348 Wisconsin21Lucas Oil StadiumIndianapolis, INBig Ten Championship Game 2020 season DateVisiting teamHome teamLocationCityNotes October 24Nebraska175 Ohio State52 Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH November 21 9 Indiana35 3 Ohio State42December 1915 Northwestern104 Ohio State22Lucas Oil StadiumIndianapolis, INBig Ten Championship Game
2021 season DateVisiting teamHome teamLocationCityNotes4 Ohio State45Minnesota31Huntington Bank StadiumMinneapolis, MN8:00 p.m. ET kickoffSeptember 419 Penn State1612 Wisconsin10Camp Randall StadiumMadison, WISeptember 1112 Oregon353 Ohio State28Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHSeptember 18Nebraska163 Oklahoma23Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial StadiumNorman, OKRivalrySeptember 2518 Wisconsin1312 Notre Dame41Soldier FieldChicago, ILShamrock SeriesOctober 214 Michigan38Wisconsin17Camp Randall StadiumMadison, WIOctober 94 Penn State203 Iowa23Kinnick StadiumIowa City, IA4:00 p.m. ET kickoffOctober 306 Michigan338 Michigan State37Spartan StadiumEast Lansing, MIRivalryNovember 138 Oklahoma1413 Baylor27McLane StadiumWaco, TXNovember 20Iowa State2113 Oklahoma28Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial StadiumNorman, OK November 272 Ohio State275 Michigan42Michigan StadiumAnn Arbor, MIThe Game December 42 Michigan4213 Iowa3Lucas Oil StadiumIndianapolis, INBig Ten Championship Game
2022 season DateVisiting teamHome teamLocationCityNotesPenn State35Purdue31Ross–Ade StadiumWest Lafayette, INSeptember 101 Alabama20Texas19DKR–Texas Memorial StadiumAustin, TXSeptember 176 Oklahoma49Nebraska14Memorial StadiumLincoln, NERivalrySeptember 24Maryland274 Michigan34Michigan StadiumAnn Arbor, MIOctober 14 Michigan27Iowa14Kinnick StadiumIowa City, IAOctober 84 Michigan31Indiana10Memorial StadiumBloomington, INOctober 1510 Penn State175 Michigan41Michigan StadiumAnn Arbor, MIRivalryOctober 22Iowa10 2 Ohio State54Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHOctober 29 2 Ohio State4413 Penn State31Beaver StadiumUniversity Park, PARivalryNovember 5Texas Tech247 TCU34Amon G. Carter StadiumFort Worth, TXRivalryNovember 12Indiana142 Ohio State56Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHNovember 19 4 TCU29Baylor28McLane StadiumWaco, TXRivalryNovember 26 3 Michigan452 Ohio State23Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHThe Game 11 Utah47 4 USC24Allegiant StadiumParadise, NVPac-12 Championship GameDecember 3Purdue222 Michigan43Lucas Oil StadiumIndianapolis, INBig Ten Championship Game
2023 season DateVisiting teamHome teamLocationCityNotesNebraska10Minnesota13Huntington Bank StadiumMinneapolis, MNRivalrySeptember 2Colorado45 17 TCU42Amon G. Carter StadiumFort Worth, TXSeptember 9Nebraska 1422 Colorado 36Folsom FieldBoulder, CORivalrySeptember 16 Colorado State3518 Colorado432OTFolsom FieldBoulder, CORivalry; game televised by ESPN at 10:00 p.m. ET; originally scheduled to broadcast from Champaign, IllinoisSeptember 2316 Oklahoma20Cincinnati6Nippert StadiumCincinnati, OHSeptember 308 USC48 Colorado41Folsom FieldBoulder, COOctober 7 Maryland174 Ohio State37Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHOctober 14 10 USC20 21 Notre Dame48Notre Dame StadiumSouth Bend, INRivalry; game televised by NBC at 7:30 p.m. ETOctober 217 Penn State123 Ohio State20Ohio StadiumColumbus, OHRivalryOctober 286 Oklahoma33Kansas 38David Booth Kansas Memorial StadiumLawrence, KSNovember 423 Kansas State307 Texas33OTDKR–Texas Memorial StadiumAustin, TXNovember 113 Michigan2410 Penn State15Beaver StadiumUniversity Park, PARivalryNovember 18 3 Michigan31 Maryland24SECU StadiumCollege Park, MDNovember 252 Ohio State243 Michigan30Michigan StadiumAnn Arbor, MIThe GameDecember 22 Michigan2616 Iowa0Lucas Oil StadiumIndianapolis, INBig Ten Championship Game
2024 season