ESPN Under Fire for “Misleading” Kickoff Times After Ohio State-Texas Delay

Ohio State and Texas were officially scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night, with the game airing nationally on ABC. But by the time the ball actually left the tee in Austin, it was closer to 8 p.m. ET — nearly a 30-minute gap between the advertised start time and the actual first snap. For a growing number of college football fans, that kind of delay isn’t a rare inconvenience anymore. It’s becoming the norm, and patience is wearing thin.

What College Football Fans Are Saying About the Delay

The frustration spilled out across social media almost immediately. One fan pointed out the inconsistency directly, questioning why Ohio State at Texas was advertised for 7:30 only to kick off around 7:50, especially when the earlier Alabama-Kentucky game that day started right on schedule. Another fan specifically called out Ohio State broadcasts as repeat offenders, estimating the delays add up to 20 or more extra minutes of commercials compared to the advertised start time, calling the pattern maddening. A third suggested a simple fix: if these primetime windows are consistently running late, networks should just officially list them as 8:10 p.m. starts instead of continuing to advertise misleading 7:30 kickoffs.

Why This Keeps Happening: A Pattern With Ohio State Broadcasts

This isn’t a one-time issue exclusive to Saturday’s game. Ohio State fans in particular have voiced this complaint repeatedly over the past several seasons, and it connects to a larger dynamic in how the sport’s national broadcast windows are structured. Marquee games often get pushed behind lead-in programming, pregame show run-times, and commercial inventory commitments that networks have already sold — all of which can eat into the advertised kickoff window before a single play happens. It’s also worth noting that Ohio State has specifically pushed back against unfavorable scheduling before: ahead of last season’s Texas matchup, the Buckeyes reportedly requested a later start time or a full move to Labor Day weekend for added exposure, a request Texas declined, keeping that particular game at a noon ET kickoff on FOX instead.

Why the NFL Doesn’t Have This Problem

Part of what’s fueling fan frustration is the stark contrast with how the NFL operates. When an NFL game is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET, it starts at 1 p.m. ET. The league’s 4:25 p.m. ET window starts right on time as well. Fans essentially never see an NFL broadcast kick off 20 to 25 minutes past its announced start time. That level of predictability has become the expectation for major American sports broadcasts, which makes college football’s more elastic relationship with its own advertised start times feel especially jarring by comparison — particularly for a sport that just delivered one of its most-watched, most-hyped matchups of the season so far.

The Irony: A Hyped Matchup That Delivered On the Field

The frustration is even more pointed given what fans actually got once the game began. Ohio State entered as the No. 1 team in the country, while Texas came in ranked No. 4 off a dominant season-opening win. The two programs also carried real recent history, having met in the College Football Playoff and again in a tightly contested opener the year before. In other words, this wasn’t a forgettable, low-stakes matchup where a scheduling slip could be shrugged off — it was one of the most anticipated games of the entire season, which only heightened fans’ frustration at having to wait an extra half hour to see it actually start.

Is There a Fix for College Football’s Kickoff Time Problem?

There’s no clear indication yet that ESPN or ABC plan to formally address the recurring gap between advertised and actual kickoff times. For now, the suggestion floated by fans simply advertising realistic start times rather than optimistic ones — seems like the most straightforward fix, even if it doesn’t address the root scheduling and programming pressures that cause the delays in the first place. Two weeks into the 2026 college football season, it’s clear this is a frustration that isn’t going away on its own, and continued primetime slippage on marquee matchups will likely keep the conversation alive as the season progresses.