Those waiting to see the defending national champions kickoff their football season are now going to have to wait about 7 hours longer than normal.
Michigan football, on the heels of its 2023 national title, announced on Monday it will begin its title defense at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31 against Fresno State and on NBC.
Michigan played on NBC multiple times last season including Week 3 against Bowling Green (31-6 win), Week 6 at Minnesota (52-10 win), Week 8 at Michigan State (49-0 win) and Week 10 vs Purdue (41-13). The Wolverines played last season’s opener, a 30-3 win over East Carolina, on the Peacock network in the first year of the new Big Ten television deal with NBC/Universal.
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U-M also played night games in the Big Ten championship (Iowa) and national championship games (Washington) last season: while the Rose Bowl (Alabama) kicked off at 5 p.m local.
In fact, the Wolverines played nine of their 15 games outside of the traditional noon kickoff window.
As much should be expected again this season, as Michigan is again projected to be one of the top 10 teams in America and has a loaded schedule.
The only other kickoff time which has been announced thus far is Week 2, when Michigan will play Texas — last season’s Big 12 champion who play in the SEC for the first team this coming season. The Wolverines and Longhorns, the only other team to make the CFP last season that Michigan did not face — for Big Noon Kickoff on Fox on Sept. 7.
And as has been tradition for the last few seasons, the Michigan-Ohio State game, Nov. 30 in Columbus, Ohio, will be at noon on Fox.
Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.
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