As Introduced

136th General Assembly

Regular Session H. B. No. 285

2025-2026

To enact section 3345.89 of the Revised Code with respect to the start times of college football games.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section 1. That section 3345.89 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 3345.89. (A) As used in this section, "state university" has the same meaning as in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code.

(B) Except as provided in division (C) of this section, no college football game played in this state shall commence prior to three-thirty p.m. on the day of the competition when both of the following circumstances apply:

(1) One competing team is the football team of a state university.

(2) Both competing teams are ranked among the top ten teams in the associated press poll, or its successor, of the national collegiate athletic association's football bowl subdivision, or its successor.

(C) Division (B) of this section does not apply if an earlier start time of a college football game between two teams is a college football tradition. For this purpose, a "college football tradition" is a start time of a game between the teams of two institutions whose football teams have competed against each other at least fifty times and the start time has been the same for at least ninety-five per cent of those games.

(D) If a game subject to division (B) of this section starts at a time earlier than permitted by that division, the attorney general shall impose a fine of ten million dollars against either the host team's football athletic conference or the television network broadcasting or streaming the game, whichever party scheduled the earlier start time.

(E) No state university shall enter into or renew a contract with the national collegiate athletic association, an athletic conference, or a media entity under which any entity, directly or indirectly, may compel or permit the university's football team to commence a college football game that is subject to division (B) of this section at a time that violates that division.