8pm Kick Time Set For Opener Against Ohio State on ESPN
/IU Athletics Release
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana's 2017 season opener against Ohio State on Thursday, Aug. 31, will kick off at 8 p.m. EDT and air on ESPN, it was announced by IU Athletics, the Big Ten and ESPN today.
The Hoosiers will open a campaign against the Buckeyes for the fifth time (1938, 1952-54) and for the first time in Bloomington. Indiana last started the year against a Big Ten foe in 1982, a 30-0 whitewashing of Northwestern on Sept. 11.
IU will host the fourth Thursday night game in Memorial Stadium history: Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 3, 2009 (W, 19-13); Towson on Sept. 2, 2010 (W, 51-17) and Indiana State on Aug. 29, 2013 (W, 73-35). The Hoosiers jumpstarted their 2016 Foster Farms Bowl season with a Thursday evening 34-13 victory at Florida International on Sept. 1.
The remainder of the first three weeks of the 2017 Big Ten football schedule, including game times and television designations for BTN, ESPN and FOX networks will be released by May 31 as per the new Big Ten media rights agreements.
In addition, the following information will be made available by May 31:
- Start times for homecoming games.
- Start times and networks for Thursday and Friday prime time games.
Prime time games for the remainder of the season, starting with Week 4, will be announced 12 days prior to the game date, per the new media rights agreements. There will be more games played in prime time as part of the new agreements, but in no case may a network select a game for prime time less than 12 days prior to it being played.