CHAMPAIGN — So much for Illini fans’ plans to show up to Grange Grove early next Saturday to be a part of Fox Sports’ Big Noon Kickoff show.
A day after Bret Bielema’s Illini fell 34-23 at Kansas, the network called an audible, announcing the show will return to Boulder, Colo., for a second straight week ahead of Saturday’s Colorado State-Colorado game.
“BOULDER, WE’RE COMING BACK,” @BNKonFOX tweeted after Deion Sanders’ team ran its record to 2-0 with a 36-14 Saturday rout of Nebraska.
Fox’s top announcing team — Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt — will still make the trip to Champaign for the network’s national broadcast of Saturday’s Illinois-Penn State Big Ten opener at 11 a.m.
But the pregame show crew of host Rob Stone and panelists Urban Meyer, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart won’t accompany them, sticking with what Klatt on Saturday called the “biggest story” in sports — “Coach Prime” and the unbeaten Buffaloes.
BOULDER WE’RE COMING BACK 🙌
Catch the Big Noon Kickoff crew with special guest @RobGronkowski in Boulder and then tune in to watch Penn State vs Illinois on FOX for Big Noon Saturday 🎉 pic.twitter.com/v4XHNMA06E
— Big Noon Kickoff (@BNKonFOX) September 9, 2023
Illinois had promoted the network’s planned appearance since early August, calling on fans to flood Grange Grove for the two-hour show’s inaugural visit leading up to the “Orange Out” game against Penn State.
Since debuting in 2019, the show has been to 10 Big Ten campuses — Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin — but never to Illinois.
All three shows this season have involved Colorado, with Meyer & Co. spending Sept. 2 in Fort Worth, Texas, for Sanders’ Buffaloes debut against TCU.
