Ohio State's Julian Sayin throws during the first half of an NCAA college football game against the Wisconsin Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

After four consecutive losses and the firing of the team’s head coach, this week’s Penn State-Ohio State game comes with a little less media attention and hype.

It also comes with fewer complaints from blue-and-white fans.

After all, the typical whining about a noon game on Fox pales in comparison to other things fans have to worry about now. It’s always a little less of an issue when a Penn State game is on the road at noon, too.

It’s still an interesting matchup — and it still could end up as the most-watched game of the season for Penn State.

The White Out game vs. Oregon drew 8.5 million viewers for NBC and the game at UCLA was watched by 3.13 million on CBS. Those are the two most-watched Penn State games of the season so far.

The past three Penn State-Ohio State games — all played at noon and all airing on Fox — have averaged 9.39 million viewers.

Even with Penn State struggling, its large fan base and Ohio State’s consistent drawing power could help the game to the best TV number of the season for Penn State. Ohio State’s most-viewed game this season was its opener against Texas, which drew more than 16 million viewers.

You may not like noon games, but they clearly work for Fox.

The network has made the noon starts a key part of its strategy for college football. It wanted to own the early kickoff time, and it has done that thanks to abundant promotion and savvy game selections. That’s meant a lot of OSU games, and their fans might have more reason to complain than any other.

Still, it’s good attention, and a lot of attention, so that’s not a bad thing.

Franklin follow-up

It’s been 13 days since James Franklin’s appearance on College GameDay that was part job interview and part reputation repair, and the prospect of him coaching next season, if he wants, seems better every day thanks to all the firings that have happened and those still to come.

Every day also seems a day closer to him referring to Penn State as “my previous institution.”

When he used that phrase in reference to Vanderbilt after coming to Penn State, it seemed ungrateful and unnecessary. After all, Vandy had allowed him to become a head coach and that led to success, which led to Penn State. Plus, the schools do not compete or play each other.

There’s certainly a reason for Franklin to be petty about how things ended at Penn State, though.

Still, he came off well on the super-friendly GameDay set, which he shared with several people who also share his agent.

Most notably that included Nick Saban, the college coaching legend turned analyst who was adamant about Franklin being treated unfairly and about Penn State being ungrateful for what the coach had done.

It was strong, not entirely wrong, but at the same time showed the disconnect between those who viewed Franklin from afar vs. those who watched his work a little closer to home.

Franklin’s biggest fault in the interview was not his confidence, suggesting he’d find another school and win a national championship there, but his confusion.

For a guy who famously listened to and tracked everything about his program in the media, it’s just impossible Franklin did not have a sense he might lose his job.

Finally, Franklin’s best

comment was a mix of deadpan comedy and sheer honesty. He said his daughter had planned to attend Penn State and that had obviously changed. Kinda funny, and true.

Notable

– For Penn State fans, part of watching other teams’ games at this point probably depends on whether the coach has been included in lists of potential candidates to lead the Nittany Lions in the future. And, how those coaches and their teams do in those games certainly impacts Penn State’s ability to promote its next program leader. It’s easier to tout someone with two losses as opposed to someone with several more losses if they got the job.

– Televised college football will be a little less entertaining without LSU’s Brian Kelly showing his emotions while pacing the sideline. His jilting of Notre Dame for LSU always made him a villain to me, and it was admittedly enjoyable watching his teams in Baton Rouge struggle as a result. Part of me wanted LSU to succeed, but a bigger part wanted Kelly, who just seems so disingenuous, to falter. Yes, that’s admittedly petty and unnecessary but it’s true.

– Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne was both forthright and a little petty as a recent podcast guest. During a visit with “The Audible with Stew, Bruce & Ralph” he lobbied for all major conferences requiring teams to have one Power 4 nonconference game. He also talked about his conference’s media partners and gave a shout out to “our friends at Fox and ESPN.” But, while talking about bigger picture college football and broadcasting, he never mentioned CBS — the network the Southeastern Conference severed ties with a couple of seasons ago, after decades of ongoing, productive partnership.

Sampsell covers the broadcast end of Penn State football for Gameday. He can be reached at stevesampsell@gmail.com