After years of weathering the #AfterDark absurdity of the Pac-12 Conference, USC hoped moving to the Big Ten might help kick most of those bizarre midnight romps from its calendar.
Of course, geographic sense only matters so much in college football when there’s millions to be made from broadcast rights. Fox had the third choice this week among the networks and chose the best available game. That’s why USC and Michigan State will kick off at 8 p.m. Saturday. Which means, in East Lansing, Mich., the game should wrap somewhere around 2:30-3 a.m.
There were two such kickoffs in the Big Ten last season, and only one that included a team hopping three time zones to the west.