It’s not just Ohio State fans that complain over start times for their games. Because now the Michigan State Spartans and their fans can jump to the front of the line to take issue with Fox Sports and the Big Ten.
Over the past year, Buckeye Nation has reached a fever pitch because of the over-reliance from Fox Sports on using Ohio State to prop up the Big Noon Kickoff window and play pretty much all of their major games at 12 p.m. ET.
But the angst felt by Ohio State fans has nothing on what Michigan State fans will experience on the evening of September 20 and into the early morning hours of September 21.
The Spartans will visit the USC Trojans in a Big Ten matchup at the Los Angeles Coliseum. And it will be a Big Ten After Dark kickoff set for 11 p.m. ET.
it’s gonna be a late one folks pic.twitter.com/1FeJ2zhlqQ
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) September 8, 2025
As you can imagine, the replies to the announcement from Michigan State fans are filled with disbelief. In addition to the late start time that will prevent most people in East Lansing and the surrounding area from watching their team play live, it’s a competitive disadvantage for the Spartans to be playing so late. The game won’t end until about 2:30 a.m. ET. If west coast teams can largely avoid playing noon games against the Big Ten’s eastern contingent, the same should apply for these Big Ten After Dark games.
But overall, even folks who are not Michigan State fans understand that this game is the latest sign that mammoth conference realignment across the country has broken college football.
This is awful in so many ways, and I’m not even a Michigan State fan.
Sorry USC, you choose to move to OUR conference. You kickoff at 5. https://t.co/sGGxb8uV48
— Chris Castellani (@Castellani2014) September 8, 2025
As a sleep-enjoyer, I believe a big ten conference game kicking off at 11pm is obscene. https://t.co/rBX9DheoUY
— Jessica Smetana (@jessica_smetana) September 9, 2025
i cannot imagine caring about college football the way I used to ever again https://t.co/cpYup7nYWX
— Ty Schalter (@tyschalter) September 8, 2025
https://t.co/96KTG4fYOE pic.twitter.com/vTKq4srKs6
— Barstool Spartans (@BarstoolMSU) September 8, 2025
This is an amazing opportunity for Spartan fans in Asia. Thank you, B1G, for valuing the entire globe. https://t.co/yPucAoJdGr
— Dirk Chatelain (@dirkchatelain) September 8, 2025
If only there was a way to prevent something like this from happening in the future. Maybe what we could do is group the west coast schools together in their own conference. Yes, then we wouldn’t have to worry about teams regularly playing at obscene times across the country that had a negative impact for their fanbase. Maybe something along the lines of a Pacific conference of some kind. No, that’s just too crazy to ever work.
About Matt Yoder