FOX grabs pair of SEC teams for Big Ten kickoffs

FOX's Big Noon Saturday is getting in unusually Southern flavor in the opening month of the 2024 college football season.

On Monday, FOX officially revealed that it would make the Sept. 7 Texas at Michigan contest as well as the Sept. 14 Alabama at Wisconsin game the network's opening two showcase affairs for the upcoming season.

Those two broadcasts, revealed along with FOX's ongoing decision to broadcast the regular-season-ending Michigan-Ohio State game Nov. 30, feature three of last season's four College Football Playoff teams.

Michigan topped first Alabama and then Washington en route to its first national championship since 1997.

Texas begins its first season of play as a member of the Southeastern Conference this fall, opening at home against Colorado State Aug. 31 before visiting the Wolverines the next week.

Alabama, an overtime loser to Michigan in Nick Saban's last game last season, is set to open the Kalen DeBoer era with consecutive home games against Western Kentucky and South Florida before traveling to face Luke Fickell's Wisconsin Badgers.