Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports are out at Fox's Big Noon Kickoff. The Barstool founder confirmed Friday that Fox Sports pulled him and the Barstool crew from its Saturday college football pregame show — and he blamed one man: Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. In a scorched-earth interview with Front Office Sports, Portnoy claimed Day believes he "doxxed" him.
What happened
The Athletic's Andrew Marchand first reported that Barstool would no longer appear on Big Noon Kickoff, Fox's flagship Saturday college football pregame show, after just over a year on the air. Portnoy got the call Thursday — before the story even ran. "I found out Thursday. They called me and told me on the phone," he told Front Office Sports. "What did they say was the reason? Ohio State."
The timing was awkward: the show went on the air Saturday from Minneapolis ahead of Michigan's game at Minnesota — Portnoy's own school — without him. Barstool is expected to keep traveling with its own college football show alongside the Fox production.
Portnoy's version: "Doxxed"
Portnoy, a Michigan alum and booster, has made Ohio State his favorite punching bag since the Wolverines upset the Buckeyes in Columbus in 2024. He claims Ohio State objected to his hiring from day one — so strongly that Fox executives were taken to Columbus and shown a 30-to-45-minute highlight tape of him ripping Ohio State and Ryan Day. He also says Barstool's show was denied entry to Ohio Stadium last weekend for the Illinois game, and that Ohio State threatened to withhold access to Fox personnel if he stayed on the show.
Then, on X, he let loose: "Ohio State and Ryan Day bitched and moaned to the Big Ten and threatened Fox till they had no choice. Juice wasn't worth the squeeze and frankly I don't blame them. Huge dollars at stake and you have Cryin Ryan throwing temper tantrums and making threats every few days on something I said."
Fox's version: a bad fit
Sources briefed on the decision told The Athletic there was no smoking gun — the problem was the constant friction of fitting Barstool's edgy, anything-goes persona inside Fox's more traditional pregame format. Neither Fox nor Ohio State publicly confirmed Portnoy's account. Fox Sports had no comment; Ohio State referred all questions to Fox. Fox pays the most in a seven-year multinetwork Big Ten rights deal and owns 61% of the Big Ten Network, so the conference relationship is enormously valuable to the network.
What's next
Barstool isn't leaving Fox entirely. Wake Up Barstool, the two-hour weekday morning show on FS1, keeps airing. But the Saturday experiment — Urban Meyer, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn and Mark Ingram plus Portnoy's chaos — is over after a little more than a season.
The takeaway
Two narratives, one exit: Portnoy says a thin-skinned rival coach got him fired; insiders say the culture clash was unsustainable. Either way, college football's loudest Michigan troll just lost his biggest stage — and the Ohio State rivalry war of words is only getting louder.
📺 Watch: Dave Portnoy blames Ohio State's Ryan Day after the Big Noon Kickoff exit.
Music in the video version: Kevin MacLeod - Ready Aim Fire (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Sources: Front Office Sports, New York Post, USA Today.